





V- 















s \# 





















-■ 












v -<p 



\ . 



A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN, 



UP, AND DOWN, AND ABOUND 
THE WOELD. 



JAMES BROOKS 



11* 




{WRITTEN IN LETTERS TO TEE N. Y. EVENING EXPRESS.} 



NEW YORK: 
D. APPLETON & COMPANY, 

549 & 551 BEOADWAT. 
1872. 



*3 



** 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by 

D. APPLETON & CO., 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



TO THE PUBLIC. 



When I left home, late in May, 1871, after an 
extraordinary session of Congress, it was for the sake 
of health, to free body and mind from work and ex- 
citement of all sorts, such as I had broken down 
under, in the hot, unhealthy air, and unnatural light 
of the House of Representatives and its Committee 
rooms. Then, it never entered my head " to scribble " 
(for that is the only proper word) the notes which 
are here embodied in a book, not altogether with my 
approbation, though of course, with my consent. A 
life-long habit of work compelled me to work (I 
could not help it), and hence, in disobedience of the 
orders of my physician, I took to scribbling, always 
in pencil, these notes or letters, which others would 
have kept in their trunks, but which I sent home, 
rude and rough, "and good enough for a newspa- 
per," perhaps, which lives but a day, but not good 
enough for a book, especially for a book of travels. 



iv TO THE PUBLIC. 

All of them save one were in pencil on Japanese 
mulberry-paper, often pencilled on my hat, some- 
times, on my knees, and oftener yet on decks, or, in 
the cabins of steamers, roughly rolling and jerking, 
and then quickly mailed without being read — from 
Yokohama and Yedo, in Japan, to Pekin and Can- 
ton, in China, or, from Sumatra or Ceylon, or, from 
India to Madras in the south, to Calcutta and Al- 
lahabad in the north, and Bombay in the west. 
These notes, thus scribbled and thus mailed, have 
no literary merit, of course — are not intended to 
nave any, and if they are good for any thing, it is 
because they were pencilled and mailed "on the 
spot" fresh and photographic, thereby. To revise 
them now, I have neither time nor inclination, not 
even time carefully to read them, until I see them 
in book-proof, where, when irrevocable, I cannot, 
if dissatisfied, remould them, and thus extract for 
the sake of style whatever life or vitality there may 
be in the notes. 

Japan, since July, when I was there, has " pro- 
gressed" so rapidly, that, the then, great, mighty, sa- 
cred, and invisible Mikado has become as visible as 
any European monarch ; and the one- or two-sworded 
retainers of the Daimios are putting off their swords 
as well as their costumes (pity for that), and becoming 
American- and European-ized so rapidly, that, in some 
respects, my notes, not a year old now, will soon be- 



TO THE PUBLIC. V 

come almost as antiquated as Sir Eichard Alcock's 
book, published not ten years since, the very reading 
of which half affrighted me, when first thinking of 
entering Japan. 

China, unchanged and unchangeable from the 
days of Marco Polo, will probably remain thus, until 
Americans or Englishmen tempt the Mandarins, by 
fat contracts, to build railroads and telegraphs, and 
thus to defy the " Eung-Shuey." 

The American tourists, who have long been run- 
ning over Europe and parts of Africa, will find in 
these notes, if not a guide-book, the outlines for one, 
and they will see, that they can now run over Japan, 
China, and India, as well as Egypt and parts of Italy, 
in less than a year. 

To tempt my countrymen of the new "World, with 
their wives and daughters, even to visit this very old 
world of the East, and thus to invite them to new 
fields of instruction and reflection, I have, not with- 
out reluctance, consented to this unprepared publica- 
tion, 

J. B. 

Washington, D. C, April 12, 1872. 



CONTENTS 



LETTER I. 

ON, TO, AND OVER THE PACIFIC. 

The Start from New York to go round the World.— Thinking out loud on Paper.— 
No fine Writing, Scribhling only.— Car Life on the Prairies and Eoeky Mountains, 
but no Rocky Mountains. — The Way the Engineer dodges them. — The Holy Land 
of Mormondom, 1 

LETTER II. 

ON, TO, AND OVER THE PACIFIC. 

The Mormon Holy Land. — Geographically like the Holy Land over the Sea. — How- 
Irrigation has made the Desert a Garden. — The Apostles and Elders of Mormon- 
dom. — The Holy Temple. — Brigham Toung in the Temple. — The Women and 
the Fashions in Salt Lake City. — Beelzebub stirring up Rebellion. — The Grass- 
hoppers and the Gulls, 10 

LETTER HI. 

ON AND FROM THE PACIFIC. 

Around the World only a " Trip." — Snow on the Mountains and Alkali Plains . — Forty- 
Miles of Snow-sheds. — Sudden Descent from Ice and Snow to Apricots and Straw- 
berries. — Sacramento.— New Railroad and Steamboat Routes, ... 18 

LETTER IY. 

ON THE PACIFIC. 

From the Golden Gate to Yokohama. — The "Japan," and the motley Crowd on 
board. — Is, or is not, the Pacific Ocean a Humbug ? — The Amusements on board. 
— The Police of the Ship. — Spoke a Boston Ship.— Meeting a Steamer in Mid- 
ocean, exchanging Mails, etc., 24 

LETTER V. 

ON THE PACIFIC. 

Life and Thoughts on Ship-board. — The Day Lost in Bounding the World. — 
"Down East" is out West. — A Puzzled Traveller. — Summer Life on this Ocean. 
— The Second Exchange of Letters — The Sixteenth Amendment. — Curious 
Congregation of Passengers, 81 



viii CONTENTS. 



LETTER VI. 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS IN JAPAN. 

Arrival in Japan.— First Impressions on the Coast. — The Fishermen in "Georgia 
Costume." — Everything New, Everything Odd. — Bamboo Baskets for Hats. — 
Straw Overcoats.— Landing on the Hatoba. — The Cues of the Japanese. — The 
Brawny Coolies. — Travelling Eestaurants. — Strange Street Spectacles. — The Tat- 
tooed Men. — The Horse Boy (Betto). — Hair Dressing. — Shocking Black Teeth 
of the Married "Women, 40 

LETTER VII. 
THE CITY OF YEDO. 
The First Day in Tedo.— The Eide on the " Tocaido."— Strange Sights there.— The 
Pretty Tea Girls. — The Tiny Tea Cups. — Eooms with Paper Partitions.— The 
Beggars. — The Gin-rick-a Sha. — Eide in State along the "Tocaido.'" — Hogs in 
Baskets.— No Tycoon, only a " Mikado." — How we Stare and how they Stare at 
us. — Great Fire in Yedo, . . .52 

LETTER VIII. 

LIFE AND SIGHTS IN TEDO. 
Sintoo and Buddhist Temples.— The Priests.— The Sacred Cream-Colored Horses. — 
Theatres in the Temples.— The Opera in Yedo.— Funny Eide thereto in Gin- 
rick-a Shas, ....** 64 

LETTER IX 

LIFE AND SIGHTS IN TEDO. 

Eyes only Useful Here. — Tongue and Ears Useless. — Shopping in Tedo.— Hotels in 
Japan. — Grand Hotel in Yedo. — Breakfast with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs 
at Hamagoten. — Dinner at a Beautiful Country-Seat. — Discussions, Political and 
Theological. — "Why the Japanese don't like Christians. — The Schools of Japan. — 
Reading, 'Writing, and Arithmetic almost Universal, 75 

LETTER X. 

TRAVELLER'S LIFH IN THE INTERIOR. 

The Great God of Kamakura. — "Statue of Dai-bootz." — Life in Japanese Tea-Houses. 
— Ride in a Cango Bamboo Basket. — The Temples around Kamakura. — Beautiful 
Scenery. — Fields cultivated like Gardens. — The Life and Rank of Japanese 
Farmers.— Visit to the Cave of Inosima. — Fish Life and Fish Dinners. — The 
"Mikado" and the " Tocaido."— Politeness and Amiability of the Japanese 
Farmers, 87 

LETTER XI. 

RETURN TO TEDO. 

In Yedo a Second Time. — Now under a British Escort. — The English Dragoons 
and Japanese Yakonins.— The British Student Interpreters.— Only a Hundred 
Caucasians among a Million of Japs. — Paper Windows.— Uneasy Sleeping. — 
Two-Sworded Loafers. — A Thousand British Troops in Yokohama.— Cheap 
Shopping in Yedo. — Fashionable Eiding, 98 



IX 



CONTENTS. 
LETTER XII. 

THINGS IN JAPAN. 

Women among the Japanese. — Their Position and Condition. — Promiscuous Bath- 
ing-houses. — The Theatre. — Ticketing Straw Shoes therein. — Jap Stump 
Orators.— Bamboo in Japan. — Japanese Art. — Shopping in " Curio " Street. — 
Can spend any Amount of Money. — The Steel of Japan.— The Government of 
Japan a Feudality. — Railroads, Telegraph, and Mint in Japan, . . . 104 

LETTER XIII. 

ON THE JAPAN SEAS. 

Adieu to Yokohama. — The Foreigners and their Life there. — The All Sorts of Clothes 
of the East. — The Japanese Passengers on board the Costa Rica. — A Japanese 
Prince and his Retinue on board.— A Typhoon dodged.— Frightful Loss of Life and 
Property. — An Earthquake felt. — Curiosity satisfied. — Motley Cargo of the 
Costa Rica.— Butcher's Meat called Fowl, 112 

LETTER XIV. 

ON THE INLAND SEA OF JAPAN. 

The Beautiful Inland Sea of Japan.— Luxurious Travelling.— Prince Hizen.— Vampire 
Cat. — Bay of Nagasaki. — The Oldest European Settlement. — The Roman Cath- 
olic Priests. — Pappenburg Island. — Thousands of Christians thrown from the 
Precipice. — The Faith of Roman Catholic Missionaries. — Street Scenes in 
Nagasaki.— Needle Making.— Porcelain Painting.— Begging Buddhist Priest- 
Street Actors.— Japanese Confectionery.— Japanese "Woman's Toilet-Box.— Re- 
ceipt for Blacking the Teeth.— Final Leave of Japan, 120 

LETTER XV. 

ON, AND OVER TO CHINA. 

On the Tellow Sea, bound to Shanghai.— The Great Tang-tze and its Yellow "Water. 
— Up the "Whang-poo. — Reflections on entering the Great Gates of China.— 
Thermometer in Shanghai.— Hot, Hotter, Hottest. — Air wanted, a Puff or a 
Typhoon.— Things In and About Shanghai.— The Summer Costume.— Innumer- 
able Mounds or Graves in the Cotton-Fields. — American Flag in the Yang-tze. — 
"We are taking the Coasting Trade of China, etc., 129 

LETTER XVI. 

THE HEALTH OF CHINA. 

"Where's Chefoo ?— A "Watering-Place in China.— Amusements There.— The Amer- 
ican and Other Fleets.— The Noisy Salutations of the Fleets.— Church Service 
on the Colorado.— The Corean Expedition.— The Race of the Rival American 
Barges.— Rain here.— Breakfast by the Russian Admiral.— The English (Uni- 
versal) Language.— Entertainments given us by the Russians. — Affinity of 
Russians and Americans.— Admiral Rodgers's State Breakfast. — Divine Service 
on board the Russian Flag-Ship.— A Busy "Week.— The Novel Assemblage at 
Chefoo about to disperse, 140 



x CONTENTS. 

LETTEE XVII. 

ON THE PEIHO RIVER. 
Tremendous Flood on the Eiver of Peiho. — Whole Villages washed away.— The 
People drowned out. — Widespread Desolation. — Living on the Eiver on a Yankee 
Steamer.— The Grand Canal broken loose.— The Crooked Peiho Eiver.— The Way 
we wound up the Eiver. — The Tear-ago Massacre of Europeans and Catholics in 
Tien-tsin. — The then Fright of all Missionaries. — Scare about going there. — 
Guns and Gunboats Commercial and Christian Guarantees. — An Exploration of 
the Old Under- water Tien-tsin, in a British Launch. — Innumerable Junks.— The 
Euins of the Eoman Catholic Cathedral. — The Tombs of the slain Sisters. — Ter- 
rors predicted for Tourists to Pekin.— Nevertheless, On, On to Pekin, . 149 

LETTEE XVIII. 

ON, TO PEKIN. 

Arrival at Tung-Chow.— Lodged in a Temple. — Ice in Abundance now.— On to 
Pekin that Night.— The Gates of Pekin at Sunset.— The Infernal Eoad to the 
Celestial City, in a Mule Cart. — Bump, Thump.— No Getting Out, no Living 
In. — The Sights on the Tung-Chow and Pekin -Eoad. — The Wheelbarrow 
Gentry.— Caravans. — First Sight of the Bactrian Camel. — The Great Walls of 
the City after Sunset. — What John Chinaman thinks of an American -dressed 
Woman entering his Capital in an Open Sedan-chair. — Difference of Opinion 
as to Pekin and New York Fashions. — Happy Welcome in the Eussian Lega- 
tion.— A Cossack Porter opens the Great Gates, 157 

LETTEE XIX. 

THE JOURNEY TO PEKIN. 

How he got to Pekin in a Springless Cart, over a G*mite-Paved Imperial Eoad, 
Thirteen Miles long when first made, and passable, now thirty, or more, from 
the Holes in it, and the Crooks to dodge these Holes. — Bones all aching from 
Pounding, but Bone-Pounding Good Medicine at Times. — The Fit-Out for the 
Eiver Peiho Journey in Sampans. — Hospitality of the Tien-tsiners. — Bad Water. 
— Must Liquor or Tea. — Dead Chinamen by millions, and Graves everywhere 
bad for Wells.— Catalogue of a Peiho Boat Outfit.— The Terrors of the Eoute all 
exaggerated. — The High Water a Help. — Cut across Lots. — The Supplies en 
route. — Beggars. — A not Disagreeable Journey. — All Sleeping Unprotected. — 
No Eeal Perils. — Coolie Comforts. — Sights on the Eiver. — British Manufactures. 
— The Cock keeps Time for the Coolie in the Morning.— Life in a Junk. — Toi- 
lettes there.— The Countless Babies here, 1G-4 

LETTEE XX. 

FROM PEKIN. 

The Guide-Books of Pekin.— The "Ji-hia-kicu-wen-kau" and the " Chcn-yuen-chi- 
lio."— Three Cities within Pekin, the Manchu or Tartar, Chinese, and Imperial. — 
Shopping in Pekin. — Great Fur Market. — Mongolia, Manchuria, Corea, and Sibe- 
ria Sables, Ermine, etc., etc. — Precious Stones. — Jade» — Greek Chapel on the 
Grounds of the Eussian Legation. — Life among Chinese Eussians. — Catholic 
and Protestant Missionaries in Pekin. — Visit to the Eoman Catholic Cathedral. — 
French Priests and Sister's of Charity. — School for Chinese Children. — Money 
and the Missionaries. — Conflicts between them. — Foreign and Anti-Foreign 
Tarty in China. — Chinese Efforts to create Prejudice aguinst Christians, . 173 



XI 



CONTENTS. 

LETTER XXI. 

FROM PEKIN. 

Paradise in- doors, Tartarus out. — Pekin Holes, Mud, Dust, Dirt.— No Noses in Pe- 
kin. — Sights and Smells. — Wealthy Chinese. — Sumptuary Laws in China. — Se- 
dan-chairs. — Marriages and Funerals. — Women of no Account. — Polygamy.— 
Women's Fashions in Pekin. — Dr. Williams, the Secretary, Bibliophilist, and 
Encyclopaedist. — The Chinese retrograding. — Confucianism losing its In- 
fluence. — Christianity. — Eoman Catholics, when starting here, teaching the Ma- 
terial as well as the Spiritual — Conflict of Christ and Confucius. — The Chinese 
Classics, 182 

LETTEE XXII. 

THE TEMPLES IN PEELN. 

The Temples in China.— Confucius and the Lama. — The Lessons of Confucius. — His 
Influence in the Government of the Chinese. — The Sages of China. — Tablets to 
the Disciples of Confucius. — The Competitive Students. — The Despotism and 
Democracy of China. — The Diagrams. — The Tang and the Tin. — Intelligence of 
the Chinese. — The Lama Buddhist Temple. — Mongolian Priests. — Contrast of 
the Lama and Confucius Temples.— A Chinese Mandarin's House. — Tang was 
his Name. — Sensation in the Streets. — The Interior of the Mandarin's House. — 
The Wife and Handmaids. — Description of the Wife's Dress.— Eefreshments. — 
Walks on the Eoof of the House, 190 

LETTEE XXIII. 

TEE GOVERNMENT OF CHINA. 

The Great Wall of China.— The Overland Eoute to St. Petersburg.— Turned back by a 
Mohammedan JEmeute.— Now too late or too early in the Season. — Can tele- 
graph from here to New Tork in twelve or sixteen Days. — The Government of 
China. — Confucius a sort of Ben Franklin or Thomas Jefferson. — No Hereditary 
Aristocracy. — Public Sentiment governs here as in Great Britain and the 
United States. — Eailroads and Telegraphs resisted by Superstitions, to be 
overcome. — China making Great Preparations for War. — Casting Cannon, etc. — 
China retrograding. — Corruption the Cause. — Mandarin Titles bought and 
sold. — The Literati Mandarins now dishonest. — The Boy Emperor, fifteen 
Tears of Age.— His Future not promising. — The Dowager hunting a Wife for 
him.— The Pekin Gazette, 199 

LETTEE XXIY. 
FROM THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA. 

On Top of the Great Wall of China.— Droves of Sheep, Hogs, Ponies, Donkeys. — 
Mongolians and Manchus. — Speech-making on Top of the Great Wall. — Speech 
of J. B. to the Great Wall. — Tartars, a Species of Tankees, leaping over all 
Walls.— Outfit for the Trip from Pekin to the Great Wall.— Brick Tea.— Sheep's- 
tail Soup. — Eggs in Abundance.— Mule Litters. — Description of the Craft.— The 
Muleteers. — Mingling Mire, Mud, and Dust. — Sounding for the Bottom of the 
Bogs.— Dodging into Farms and Gardens. — Eoads in China are Ditches. — The 
Pass of Nan-Kow. — First Night's Experience in a Mongolian Inn. — A Brick 
Oven to sleep on.— Journey to the Wall over a Eough and Terrible Eoad.— A 
Series of Walls.— A Lunch amid Euins of the Wall —The Comfort of a Cup of 
Cold Water, 208 



xii CONTENTS. 

LETTER XXV, 

RETURN TO PEKIN. 

The Ming Tombs.— The Grand Approach to them. — All going to ruin.— The Summer 
Palace of the Emperors. — " Yueng-Ming-Yuen-Ching," the man-of-all-work. — 
Letters of Credit no Service in Pekin.— No Coin or Currency in China. — Sycee. — 
The North of China. — The Emperor gives Audience at 5 a. m.— The Marble Bridge 
and the Lotus. — The Temple of Heaven.— The Temple of Earth.— The Sacrifices 
in these Temples by the Emperor, 220 

LETTER XXVI. 

RETURNING SOUTHWARD. 

A Traveller retracing his Steps. — Tung Chow, on the Peiho Eiver. — The "Wheel- 
barrow Traffic. — Death to the Coolies. — Processions en route. — Of Funerals 
and "Weddings. — A Good Story told of Gov. Seward.— Mistaking a Euneral Pro- 
cession for an Ovation to Himself. — Expense of Travelling as a Grandee. — A Tem- 
ple for a Hotel. — Eunning the Gauntlet of the Junks to Tien-tsin. — The Noisy 
Monosyllables of the Chinese. — Huge Pyramids of Salt. — Home, Sweet Home. — 
The Szeckuen. — Under a Yankee Captain from Maine. — The Grapes of the 
Peiho.— The Soiling Screw Steamers of the Yellow Sea. — Eivalry of British and 
American Steamers. — Chinese Customs collected by Foreigners. — The American 
Elag driven off.— Manufactures driven off, 286 

LETTEE XXVII. 

THINGS IN SHANGHAI. 

Shanghai.— Its Enterprises and Surroundings.— The Hot Sun of Shanghai— Turning 
White Men Yellow.— The City Government of Shanghai.— Eastern Hours for 
Breakfast and Dinner. — The Great Commerce of Shanghai. — Much of it passing 
into Chinese Hands. — Tea Trade. — Tea-Tasters. — Telegraphs to, and from Shang- 
hai. — Tea Steamers up the Yang-tze. — Foreign Schemes to dodge the Fung 
Shuey — Hostility to Electricity.— The Telegraphs from Shanghai via Nagasaki 
and Vladivastock, in Russia, 247 

LETTEE XXVIH. 

FROM THE ENGLISH COLONY OF HONG KONG. 

How Screw-Steamers roll. — Cabins, Hot, Hotter, Hottest. — Chow Chow excellent. — 
Sleep in a Stew Prison. — The Great English (P. & O.) and French Lines of Steam- 
ers in the East.— Hong Kong.— Typhoons here.— The City the Refuge of the 
Refuse Chinese. — Curious Intermixture of Population. — The Coolie Emigration 
here.— The Dialects of China.— Pidgen English.— Chinese Kitchens and Cooks, 
etc., etc., 255 

LETTER XXIX. 

THINGS IN CANTON. 

"What Canton is.— Its People, Streets, Sowers, etc., etc. — The Temples of Canton. — 
Sacred Hogs, Confucius and the Stalls.— Caging Students ambitious to be Man- 
darins.— Do Chinamen eat Cats, Dogs, and Rats ? — The Manufactories of Can- ' 



CONTENTS. Xlii 

ton. — The Silk Gauzes. — An Improvised Breakfast on a Pagoda. — No Beasts of 
Burthen in the City.— All Coolie Work.— A Sabbath in Canton. — Boat Life 
there. — Ducks and their Owners. — Gates and Police. — No Going Out Nights. — 
No Courting.— No Clubs 265 

LETTER XXX. 

THOUGHTS ON THE CHINA SEAS. 

The Imitative Powers of the Chinese.— Their Love of Money. — Population of China 
over-estimated. — Pisciculture in Canton.-^Chinese Dialects. — "War Talk. —Super- 
stitions of the Ignorant.— Singapore. — The Malay Divers. — Foreign Commerce. 
— The Census. — The Jungle. — Agriculture, etc., etc., .... 276 

LETTEE XXXI. 

FROM CEYLON AND THE BAY OF BENGAL. 

England, Continuous England. — The Steamer Congregation in Ceylon. — A Grand Ori- 
ental Hotel. — Buddhism born here. — Sapphires, Eubies, and Pearls. — The Cinga- 
lese great Cheats. — A Monkey Story. — Curious Boats and Boatmen in Galle. — 
Men here mistaken for Women, and vice versa. — Madras, and Things there. — 
The Latin Eaces here crowded off by the Anglo-Saxon. — Englishmen here patron- 
ize the Shastra and the Veda, as well as the Bible. — Their Eace kept distinct.— A 
Handful of Englishmen governing a World. — Juggling in Madras. — Golcondaand 
Juggernaut. — Cyclones and the Church at Sea. — Hymns, etc. . . . 283 

LETTER XXXII. 

BRITISH INDIA. 

England Forever and Ever— 200,000,000 British Subjects— Standing Army of 320,000 
Soldiers.— Vast Imports and Exports. — East Indians. — Monkeys or Meij. — Trade 
and Commerce of India. — The Holy Ganges. — English Water- Works on it. — 
Calcutta no longer the " Black Hole " — Hot, not Unhealthy. — The Punkah Fan 
the Great Institution of India. — The Punkah Everywhere. — Tudor and His Ice 
the Great Things of the East.— The Hancocks, the Websters, Nothing.— The 
Tudor Every Thing. — Wenham Something. — Boston Nothing. — The Hoogley 
Eiver and the Cyclones. — Enchanting Approach to Calcutta. — The King of 
Oude. — A Seventeen Days' Hindoo Holiday in Calcutta. — Polygamy and Poly- 
andry. — Hindooism, Buddhism, Brahminism and Mohammedanism. — The 320,- 
000 Standing Army Government of India not a Bad One, . ... 292 

LETTEE XXXIH. 

THINGS AND THOUGHTS IN CALCUTTA. 

The Impudent Crows of Calcutta. — How they chatter. — A Drove of Elephants em- 
barking for War. — The "Central Park " and "Hyde Park" of Calcutta. — Funny 
Liveries. — The Trade of the Metropolis of India.— Exports, Cutch, Coir, Jute, 
Indigo, and so on. — The Cocoa-nut Tree. — American Trade. — Assam Tea.— The 
Opium Trade,' a Government Monopoly. — The Flocks of Servants in Calcutta. — 
No Women Servants. — All Men. — Men as Washerwomen. — The Woman invisi- 
ble. — English Women going to India. — The Chit and the Coolie.— The Ladies' 
Chit.— Charming Social Life in Calcutta, 303 



xiv CONTENTS. 



LETTER XXXTV. 
THE RUN ACROSS INDIA. 

Things in India. — Eail from Calcutta to Bombay. — The Raging Sun of India. — The 
Parsees of Bombay. — Fire Worshippers.— Sunday Evening's Work in Cal- 
cutta.— India Eailroad Cars. — How they are cooled, and how they are convert- 
ing the Pagans. — The Telegraphs of India. — Journalism in India. — Coal in 
India. — The Way Coolies work. — Indian Muslins and Cashmere Shawls. — The 
Plains of the Ganges. — The Pagan Temples of India.— Hindoos more intelligent 
than Mohammedans. — Allahabad. — Jubbalpore. — The Passage of the Ghauts. — 
Entrance into Bombay, 314 

LETTEE XXXV. 

SIGHTS IN AND ABOUT BOMBAY. 

Bombay.— What it is as a City. — Calcutta the Court ; Bombay the Mart.— New In- 
fluences of the Suez Canal. — The Treasures of India here. — Cashmere Shawls. — 
The Bombay Fashionables on a Drive. — The Parsees. — The way they don't bury 
their Dead. — India Gods. — Where manufactured. — The Temples of India.— The 
Wonderful " Elephanta." — Dining Out in the East. — The Eoute to Persia and 
Aden. — The Census and Exports of Bombay.— Extent of Bailroads in India. — 
Sound Banks and a good Currency, 329 

LETTEE XXXYI. 

ON THE ARABIAN AND RED SEAS. 

Lascars, Africans, Chinese, Portuguese, and Englishmen, managing a Steamer. — 
The Infernal Sun of India.— The Eeservoir of Surplus Englishmen.— How India 
exhausts European Life. — The British Soldier's Luxurious Life in Peace. — The 
Native Troops of India. — The Grip of England upon India.— Effect of Christian- 
ity upon Hindoos and Mohammedans. — The Hindoo Pantheon and 333,000,000 
Gods.— The Brahmin Castes. — Bankers below Barbers.— Arabs and their Ocean 
Craft. — Eailroad from London to Bombay.— Time, Five Days.— England encore, 
toujour^, forever and ever. — The Eed-Hot Eed Sea. — This Unfinished Part of 
the Earth. — Aden the Fag End of Creation. — The Divers of Aden.— Strings 
of Camels Led by their Noses. — The Proper Time to Travel in the East. — Fares 
and Distances, 340 

LETTEE XXXVII. 

SUDDEN FLIGHT FROM ASIA AND AFRICA INTO EUROPE. 

Among the Alps. — The Isthmus of Suez. — Suez Canal. — Will it pay ?— Egypt and 
Alexandria. — Confederate Officers in the Pasha's Army. — Horrid (English) Eail- 
road Cars.— Boreas and the Egyptian Sands.— Across the Mediterranean to 
Brindisi. — Things in Brindisi and Turin. — How cold it is.— Mt. Cenis and the 
Great Tunnel. — Glorious Scenery, 353 

LETTEE XXXVIII. 

THINGS IN PARIS AND LONDON. 

Things in Paris and in London. — Shopping in both Cities. — Paris sad just now. — 
An American almost Home in England. — Liverpool. — Rough Rocking on the 
Atlantic— Put into Newfoundland for Coal. — St. John's.— Fishermen there. — 
Home again, Sweet Home, etc., 361 

Home fbom a Foreign Siioke, 371 



A S^VEN MONTHS RUN, 

UP, AND DOWN", AND AROUND THE WORLD. 



LETTER I. 

OJff, TO, AND OVER TEE PACIFIC. 

The Start from New York to go round the World. — Thinking out loud on Paper.— 
No fine "Writing, Scribbling only. — Car Life on the Prairies and Kocky Mountains, 
but no Rocky Mountains.— The Way the Engineer dodges them.— The Holy Land 
of Mormondom. 

Salt Lake City, May 26, 1871. 

Five days' start from New York, only ; left there 
Sunday night, May 21st (after Sunday was over), 
here, in the " Holy City," Friday, 7 p. m., trunks 
all- right, ticketed from 2sTew York, with but one 
sight of them, no trouble, no fatigue, plenty of 
sleep, good enough living — the Tabernacle in view, 
and the Saints all about. The " Rail " could not do 
all this, not even the " Pacific " Rail ; but the 
blessed invention of the sleeping-car rocks one so 
gently at night, and puts one so gently to sleep, that 
one is a little fresher, as the morning sun peeps 
through the windows, than if one slept at home, 
without the cradling and the motion. 

I am ordered off by a doctor for a " trip," a trip 
only, somewhere, but where, there are no Congresses, 
no newspapers, no telegraphs, no rails, and I am going 



2 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

to obey, reserving the privilege only of thinking out 
loud on paper to you — nay, permitted to do nothing 
else — and I am going to obey that doctor, but just 
how, or just where, I can't see, though I am going 
over the Pacific into Asia to see. I should die, after 
my busy life, with nothing to do ; but this — if your 
readers will expect nothing else save scribbling — pen- 
cil scratching, no fine writing, nothing but a travel- 
ler's thoughts out loud, will busy me, kill off idle 
hours, and, perhaps, amuse you. 

Well, when one starts on a journey over, or 
" around the world," one naturally enough begins 
to count the first few miles in the twenty-four or 
twenty-five thousand (more or less, that depending 
upon deviations to come). The start from New York 
to Newark was the first count, seven great miles, 
which left some twenty-four thousand nine hundred 
and ninety-three to come. This species of arithme- 
tic, however, soon tires one, and the blessed sleeping- 
car comes to relieve. I waked up among the moun- 
tains of Pennsylvania, in the winding gorges of the 
Alleghanies, near Altoona, where the Chinese gongs 
sound a terrible rattle for breakfast, and where sce- 
nery, as beautiful as cit should see, gladdens his eye, 
warms his heart, and makes him feel there is some- 
thing on earth — even if it be Pennsylvania coal and 
coal-smoke— now and then, more cheering than miles 
of New York brown-stone or brick and mortar. We 
flew (a locomotive fly) over the crest of the Allegha- 
nies, by such pretty mountain watering-places as 



ON, TO, AND OVER THE PACIFIC. 3 

Cresson ; and at 10.30 A. m. we were in that great 
inland workshop, Pittsburg, which all of us contrib- 
ute more or less to build up in the taxes we univers- 
ally pay. As a stream of freight cars met us, labelled 
" From Valparaiso toBatavia,"I could not but think 
at first what a long journey that train is on, from 
South America to the East Indies, over sea; but 
when I reflected what hard work it is in this new 
country to find new names for its ever-springing-up 
cities and towns, the journey did not seem so long. 

There was a dear little woman with us, and she 
had a dear little baby, and these dear little things 
were going somewhere "West, to meet some dear big 
husband, who had rolled up dollars enough to roll 
them out from their Eastern home, but not dollars 
enough to spare to tempt him to go out and escort 
them on. The dear little woman must have air, and 
would have air, and, this being her first great jour- 
ney, would look out of open windows. The con- 
sequence was, despite the ingenious inventions of 
the compartment-car, its upper windows, its ventila- 
tors, etc., etc., the dear little woman would, and did, 
cover us all over with dust and cinders. This led me 
to the reflection, that the car inventors, who are daily 
inventing all sorts of new things to cheat journeying 
out of its hardships, and to make it as pleasant as 
home, should invent a special compartment cage, to 
cage up dear little women, fresh and green in this 
journey of life, where they would be themselves all 
covered up with dirt and cinders, and catch great 



4 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

colds for themselves and their babies, to kill them, 
perhaps, soon after they reach their husbands. 

But if I go on thus " thinking out loud," I shall 
never get to this, the Holy City, this Mecca, this 
Jerusalem. The 23d (evening) we crossed the Missis- 
sippi, at Davenport (Iowa), where great works and 
great doings of all kinds are going on. Think of an 
opera-house there, and big breweries, and two bridges i] 
here over the stern Father of "Waters. The 24th 
(morning) we crossed the Missouri, rising and roaring 
now, and looking like mush. The classic Greeks 
called such yellow rivers " golden " (vide, the golden jj 
Pactolus) ; but " mush " is the proper Yankee word 
for this yellow, turbid, wild, mud-mixed torrent. The [ 
big piers of the Union Pacific Railroad bridge, sixty y 
or eighty feet under water, to rock bottom, are fast 
going down, and the same car that takes us from Chi- 
cago over the broad prairies of Illinois and Iowa, can & 
take us over a bridge, on to the Rocky Mountains of 
"Wyoming and Utah. 

"We are crossing the prairies of Nebraska, and 
ascending the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains ;, 
— in a compartment, with an organ in the centre, | 
from which the musically inclined are grinding ;• 
out their melodies— in native "Old Hundred" or 
" Bridgewater " notes, while a Frenchman, an artist, \ 
of course, bound on to San Francisco, rolls out his fol- , 
de-rols in thunder squalls, that astound the Pawnee | 
squaws, and scare up the prairie dogs and antelopes. 
Everybody that has not seen an Indian, pants to see 



ON, TO, AND OVER THE PACIFIC. 5 

one, and the first Pawnee that turns up receives 

i many a mite — more especially the squaw and the 

j papoose slung on her back, from all the romantically 

I inclined young women. The classic barbarians here, 

! contemptuously call the Indian, " Lo," from Pope's 

| " Lo, the poor Indian, whose untutored mind sees God 

in clouds, and hears Him in the wind," while all the 

Eastern Popes think of him only as Cooper has painted 

him, and sympathize with him and his sufferings. 

Everybody, too, pants to see a prairie dog— miserable 

little squirrel-like wretches, that live in towns (in 

towns of holes), and pop up as the cars are coming, 

and pop down as the cars come, — or, an antelope (we 

are expecting, in vain, though, to breakfast and dine 

upon one) or deer, which we often see scampering in 

fright over the rocky hills and through the sage brush. 

We gather some prairie flowers ; we buy more. All 

are very pretty ; and thus car life and prairie life are 

charming to such as have not had too much of it. 

Car life like ours is a new life, existing only in 
this country. The sleeping-car with beds and bed- 
clothes is known in no other land, and hence I will 
tarry by the wayside to think out loud about 
it. There were seventeen ladies and twenty-seven 
children in the car that preceded us yesterday, " the 
steward's" (that's the new name, I think, for the 
dark-colored young gentleman that " helps " in this 
craft, and makes up, and makes down, the beds) — 
but in this car of ours we have only seven little 
ones, not with mothers to match, though, for one 



6 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

mother owns Rve of the seven. The dark-colored 
young gentleman, when we order, drops down the 
upper beds, and pulls out the lower beds, and we 
tumble in behind the curtains, and strip off our gear 
as quickly as possible. Some go to bed at 8, and 
others at 12 p. m., and thus the eight-hour people can 
be regaled for hours by the stories, the adventures, 
the secrets, of the twelve-hour people, who have ! 
four mortal hours to tell all they know. Then, when 
the train stops to coal, or to water, we hear the 
gentle outgoing of some near neighbor's fairy breath, 1 
or the deep, sonorous snore of some hard sleeper, ' 
whom some nightmare is harassing. The hours of ) 
rising are not so irregular as the hours of retiring ; [ 
for a sort of necessity compels everybody " to get up " \ 
at once, about six or seven. Then come scenes no 
mere scribling pencil of mine can exploit, only the 
light rays of the photographer. From some top-bed- 
chambers, hang out long tresses of hair ; from others, 
projecting articles of dress; from others, the dan- 
gling, pantalooned legs of men — while all, to do all 
justice, laugh at the miseries and mysteries of the 
toilette, and make the most and the best of the uni- 
versal huddle. We wash, as we best can ; and when 
the gong rattles for breakfast, the most of us rush 
out, to give the dark-colored young master of the 
craft his opportunity to clean up, and clear off, the 
ruins of the night. Some, however, nay many, who 
cannot afford the dollar breakfast (for that is the 
price here of every meal), draw forth their lunch- 



ON, TO, AND OVER THE PACIFIC. 7 

,j baskets, and eat in the cars, and thus much disturb 
I the master in making a day " palace " of his night 
: sleeping hall. Night after night, this is the scene, 
! from Omaha, on the Missouri, to Oaklands, on the 
j Pacific waters. 

Cheyenne — away up the hills, some thousands of 
j feet above the level of the sea, no matter how many, 
j but many enough at times to be very snowy, more 
! windy, and very cold — is the Wyoming Territory 
Exchange of the Union Pacific Railroad. Near 
here we begin to see the snowy mountains ; and near 
here we see, or think we see, the Rocky Mountains ; 
but the Rocky Mountains on the line of the Union 
Pacific Railroad are grand humbugs. " There is not 
any Rocky Mountain," the traveller writes down in his 
note-book. " The geographer has been cheating us for 
a hundred years." " Lewis and Clarke, the first Pacific 
explorers, told lies." " Fremont wrote romances about 
Rocky Mountains, Rocky Mountain fastnesses, and 
Rocky Mountain peaks." " The United States Gov- 
ernment engineers, in their great, big Pacific Railroad 
Government books, drew monstrous long yarns," etc. ! 
But there are Rocky Mountains, real, live, big, boun- 
cing, frightful Rocky Mountains ; but the Union Pacific 
Railroad has contrived so to get over, or through, and 
around them, that the traveller is cheated out of his 
eyes and seven senses, and there are no Rocky Moun- 
tains to him. We are going up, up, up ; we all feel 
and know that. The vegetation indicates, we are 
going heavenward. Sherman, the tip-top, jumping- 



g A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

off railroad place, 8,242 feet above the level of tlie j, 
sea, demonstrates there are some Rocky Mountains ; 
but we have only seen snowy peaks in the distance — 
Pike's Peak and Elk Mountain — and thus "going 
over the Rocky Mountains," on the Union Pacific 
Railroad, is all a joke to us. 

Cheyenne, I was about to say, when led off on 
this Rocky Mountain Jack-o'-lantern digression, is an 
" Exchange " on the Union Pacific Railroad. The 
Denver (Colorado) Railroad comes in here, bringing 
passengers from St. Louis. The Western Union 
Pacific Railroad train meets the Eastern train here. 
We all gaze about to see whom we know. The United 
States Army rides in, from the forts all round, with 
its wives and children, to see " who is who, and what 
is what." Three trains, meeting 6,000 feet in the air, 
is the great event of the day. We eat, of course, 
thirty minutes (they give us fifty here). "We stop to 
buy moss agate jewelry. We shake hands with every- 
body, from everywhere, or going everywhere. There 
is a daily evening newspaper here, and we devoured 
the telegrams, more especially to see how the mad- 
men were carrying on, in Paris, the night before. In 
short, we know just as much, away up here in the air, 
of what the world is doing, as you know on Broad- 
way, New York. There are two competing lines 
of telegraph all about us. We receive and send 
home messages. Indeed, we are at home, away 
up here in the Rocky Mountains, among the bears, 
the wildcats, and the rattlesnakes, if any are left, 



ON, TO, AND OYER THE PACIFIC. 9 

that have not run away with the buffaloes and the 
Indians. 

From " Sherman," named after General Sherman, 
the tallest general in the army, we go down, down, 
down. Two engines pulled us up, but all the brakes 
are put on as we go down, down, down. Then we 
scour over the Laramie Plains, reach Laramie City, 
the hope, the haven, the heaven of the woman's 
righters, where sing the men — 

"Nice little baby, don't get in a fury, 
'Cause mamma's gone to sit on the jury." 

To Laramie succeeded darkness, and a night's 
ride ; but the moon broke in upon us, with the mag- 
nificent scenery of the railroad. An observation-car, 
in early morning, was attached to the rear of the 
train, to give all the passengers an opportunity to see 
the Canons, the Castle Hock, the Hanging] Rock, the 
Pulpit Rock, the Devil's Slide, the Devil's Gate Sta- 
tion, etc. We wide opened our eyes and our ears, 
and took in all ; but I am now so absorbed in the 
Holy Land, where I am, that scenery is nothing to 
me now. I tarry over the Sabbath to worship with 
the Saints in the Tabernacle ; and, if I can get time, 
you shall hear more from me before I go into the 
outer darkness of the telegraph and mail, on the 
boundless Pacific Ocean. 



LETTEE II. 

ON, TO, AND OVER TEE PACIFIC. 

The Mormon Holy Land. — Geographically like the Holy Land over the Sea. — How 
Irrigation has made the Desert a Garden. — The Apostles and Elders of Mormon- 
dom. — The Holy Temple. — Brigham Young in the Temple. — The "Women and 
the Fashions in Salt Lake City.— Beelzebub stirring up Bebellion. — The Grass- 
hoppers and the Gulls. 

Salt Lake, May 28, 1871. 
What to say of this extraordinary place, how to 
picture it, its industries, its progress, its great achieve- 
ments, puzzle me. It is very like Jordan, and the 
Dead Sea, and that part of the Holy Land. The 
Salt Lake is the Dead Sea. There is a Jordan here 
pouring into this dead salt sea, where nothing can 
live, to which Dead Sea, here, there is no outlet, 
as in that near Jerusalem. The mountains are all 
about, but these are magnificent, snow-covered moun- 
tains, pouring down their rich waters to irrigate, 
awaken, develop, and enrich the soil — to drive the 
miserable sage brush off, and to substitute .therefor 
all sorts of grain, and roots, and fruits that can make 
a people prosperous and happy. When Brigham, the 
Prophet, many years gone by, first led here his 
driven-off squadrons (so like the Israelites, driven off 
from Egypt to wander in the wilderness), this great 
valley, with its sage brush and its rough rocks, 



ON, TO, AND OVER THE PACIFIC. H 

must have looked very like what the Dead Sea and 
Jordan now are; but Brigham and his tribes have 
made it teem with bread and honey, and to blossom 
like the rose. I cannot help, therefore, feeling a sort 
of admiration for these Illinois and Missouri, but 
Yankee led, banished prophets, apostles, and elders, 
I and their hosts of followers from Scandinavia to 
| Scotia — for these Celts, Britons, Germans, Danes, 
| Norwegians, these representatives of the refuse of the 
| world. The Lord, or the Devil (choose which), has 
| here chosen the humblest, the most ignorant instru- 
i ments, to do the greatest things. " And Love rules all," 
I we are told, and we see it, or seem to see it, through 
the apostles and elders. Love brings the water har- 
moniously down from the mountains, and divides 
and subdivides the torrent into little streams, and 
' brooks, and rivulets, and they flow over every man's 
: field, by every man's door, and the patriarchs 
(most of them very unpromising-looking patriarchs, 
though), with their wives, and children, and flocks, 
drink it in, or see the earth drink it in, as Egypt 
drinks in the Nile waters. But there is no " report " 
from these high Courts of Love, that thus rule and 
regulate all. Eeporters are not admitted to the 
Council of the apostles and elders. There are no 
general or special sessions, that we know of — no 
short-hand, nor long-hand reporters, no stenograph- 
ers. But, in faith, we believe, or ought to believe, 
that Love rules all the lan.d, and subjects all to its 
laws — for here, we are told, is the Millennium, nay, 



12 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

Paradise, perhaps. Wonderful people ! La Allah, 
as the Mussulman says. " Great is God, and Brig- 
liani is His prophet." 

Everybody comes here now, of course, unless a 
body is in such a hurry that Mecca, or Jerusalem, is 
nothing to him. The curious can never happily pass 
over the great Pacific road without shooting off, on 
the Mormon tangent railroad, now thirty-six miles 
long, to see this Mecca of America. I shot off with 
a New York party on this railroad tangent. A Mr. 
Townsend, all the way from Maine, with only three 
wives (one of them just dead), keeps the hotel of the 
city, and a very fair and quite a large hotel it is, but 
very soon, with all its additions, it will not be half 
big enough, especially on a Sunday, when travellers 
most desire to be here, to worship in the Tabernacle, 
or Temple. Think what a day of rest a Sabbath is 
here ! "We breakfast on mountain trout, fresh from 
the icy streams. We march in the long trains of 
Saints and Saintesses to the holy Temple. A hun- 
dred or two, or more, of apostles and elders sit on an 
elevated platform, and we, the people, in mingled 
communion, sit below, and look up to the holy 
priesthood while they dispense the Old Testament 
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the New Testa- 
ment of Jesus Christ, as enlarged and expounded by 
Joe Smith, in his new Gospel of " glorious " Revela- 
tion. Our wives and progeny are all about. None 
of us have less than one child — some forty, or fifty, 
or sixty. The women are not fascinating, either in 



ON, TO, AND OYER THE PACIFIC. 13 

pretty faces (there are exceptions) or pretty fashions. 
The great Prophet Brigham discourages fashion, but 
the rascally innovation "will come here, and is some- 
what stronger than even the Prophet. A big hoop 
rustles around us now and then. Occasionally we 
see a coquettish cap, nicknamed a bonnet ; silks, if 
not satins, also intrude ; but the great mass of the 
women bring here their hats and robes, from their 
mothers and great-grandmothers, and the result is a 
head-gear representative here of Swede, of Scot, of 
Celt, of Yankee, the patterns, perhaps, of ten genera- 
tions behind, with scoots of Quaker formation, and 
umbrellas of Italian conception. A photograph of 
Salt Lake fashions might suggest ideas to Eugenie, 
perhaps, if ever she recovers the fashionable domin- 
ion of the world. 

We listened profoundly, for one hoar and more, 
to a very clever discourse of an elder, or apostle, 
here, a Mr. Cannon, who does double duty — first, as 
daily editor of the Deseret Journal, and next, as 
preacher ; but our great desire was to see Brigham, 
to hear Brigham, and to drink in the gospel of Joe 
Smith, the martyr, as dropped from the lips of Brig- 
ham. Heaven prospered our desires. Brigham arose 
— a good-looking man, now of seventy years, very 
like Tom Benton, the Missouri Senator, in his latter 
days — neatly and meekly dressed (by what wife ? a 
wicked Gentile woman asked us), and he shrewdly, 
ably expounded his creed. There is no doubt of the 
all-sorts-of-ability of this remarkable man, whether he 



14 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

be preacher, prophet, governor, ruler, banker, farmer, 
railroad builder, miner, husband, or father. The 
Saints all look up, and marvel, and wonder, and even 
we sinners looked up, and marvelled, and wondered. 
He told us (and it was new to all of us) the City of 
Enoch was in the Gulf of Mexico, and the waters 
would one day recede northward, and the city come 
up again — while all the isles of the Gulf would be re- 
annexed to our continent, and become part and 
parcel of the United States (even St. Domingo, per- 
haps, without Grant's treaty of purchase and annexa- 
tion). 

Brigham, however, is not much longer to have 
undisputed religious dominion here, his worshippers 
tell us. Beelzebub is stirring up rebellion. The 
Episcopalians have planted a church here (wonder 
where the money comes from), costing forty or fifty 
thousand dollars. The Eoman Catholics are already 
here. The Methodists are about to invade Utah 
with one of their prodigious camp-meetings, raking 
in Methodists, there, from the Missouri, at Omaha, to 
San Francisco, on the Pacific. They threaten to 
capture Brigham and all his hosts. Brigham, gener- 
ously or tauntingly, offered them his huge new Taber- 
nacle, holding 13,000 people, with its galleries, new, 
and the big organ, perhaps the biggest in the world, 
to be thrown in, for their great Love Feast ; but 
they declined the taint, or the taunt, and they turn 
up in tents, in the open fields, under a cloudless 
sky. If any sect can capture Brigham and his hosts, 



ON, TO, AND OVER THE PACIFIC. 15 

it is the Methodists ; but they cannot sing half as 
loud as his ten or twelve thousand congregation; 
they cannot cry " Amen " as loud, and they cannot 
pray louder. Their priesthood, close, and compact, 
and powerful as it is, is not half so close, compact, 
and powerful as his. I should like to be there to see 
the great battle of the hosts ; but I am bound for the 
land of Confucius, and the heathen Chinee, and the 
Hindoo, and the Mussulman, and shall never see the 
great fight among the mountains of Utah. 

The grasshoppers, not the Gentiles, are the great- 
est enemies of the Mormons. They eat up every 
thing, at times, and half-starve out the delving Saints. 
But Providence, Brigham told us, has come to the 
rescue of the Saints. The gulls, never before known 
here, were sent to eat the grasshoppers up. They 
came in swarms, devoured the grasshoppers in the 
fields, vomited them up in the deadly waters of Salt 
Lake, returned for more, re-did the like, and thus 
freed Mormondom from the pest. The Gentiles are 
coming in, in swarms, though, to work the mines. 
They find the money ; Brigham finds the workmen, 
on hire. The Emma mine is a new silver mine, just 
sold to Californians and New-Yorkers for over a mil- 
lion, to be converted into a five million stock. The 
valley below here (south) is said to be full of mines 
on the mountain sides. Brigham has just concluded 
a contract with the Union Pacific Kailroad directors 
to extend his thirty-sixth-mile road twenty miles 
further, that Company finding the iron, and Brigham 



16 A SEYEN MONTHS' KUtf. 

doing the grading, for only eight hundred dollars per 
mile — for there is little or no grading or bridging 
to clo. There is no doubt that all Southern Utah is 
more or less abounding in silver mines ; and capital- 
ists are here on hand looking after them. The 
Townsend Hotel is full of adventurers in mining. 
What effect all this invasion is to have upon Brigham 
and his Saints is not exactly to be foreseen; but 
when the Prophet has a new revelation, from Joe 
Smith or any other divine revelator, abolishing poly- 
gamy for the future (now that the country is settled, 
not at present, of course), then Brigham and his Saints 
have an organization that can and will successfully 
contend with Methodism or any other religious de- 
nomination. The double, triple, quadruple, if not 
centuple, wife system will not stand fire now. Its 
day was over with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, when 
the world was to be settled. I expect every day to 
hear some such new revelation from the great Tem- 
ple, and Brigham, the great Knight Templar. 

I visited every thing, or almost every thing, the 
two days I was here — the sulphur, natural, warm- 
baths in the city ; the barracks (Camp Douglas), four 
miles off, where we station a general and several 
companies, to frighten the Saints to keep order, and 
the theatre, Saturday night — a first-class theatre, too, 
with a building as fine, and acting as good, as two- 
thirds of the theatres of ISTew York — (the Prophet, 
like Beecher, allows his followers fun and frolic, and 
assists in it, now and then) — and last, not least of 



ON, TO, AND OVER THE PACIFIC. 17 

all, the house, the home, the sanctum of the great 
Prophet himself. Two of his daughters are stock 
actresses. But I must draw a veil over all that. It 
is not right for sinners to talk with saints, and then 
tell, is it ? 



LETTEE III. 

ON AND FROM TEE PACIFIC. 

Around the World only a " Trip. 1 '— Snow on the Mountains and Alkali Plains.— Forty 
Miles of -Snow-sheds. — Sudden Descent from Ice and Snow to Apricots and Straw- 
berries. — Sacramento.— New Kailroad and Steamboat Koutes. 

San Francisco, June 1, 1871. 

I am about leaving in the Pacific Mail Co.'s 
steamer, the Japan, for Yokohama, Yeddo, Shanghai, 

Hankow, Hong Kong, Canton, and , which is 

about as far as my geography goes, just now. 
Hence, I must scribble in pencil as fast as I can. 
The Pacific Mail steamers, all of them, are first- 
class, more abounding in sea comforts, I think, than 
any thing we have on the Atlantic; and therefore 
Japan, only twenty-two days from here, is not much 
of " a trip," so it seems to me now, though Japan 
once did seem a great way off — as far off as was Cal- 
ifornia from Boston in the days of my youth — that 
is, the jumping-off place of the world. If the tropics 
do not threaten to burn us up in July and August, I 
shall " trip " it around the world. Every thing, you 
know, in this country is a " trip," even a journey 
around the world. 

"We left the snowy mountain surroundings of the 
Salt Lake Yalley after " meeting," on Sunday, May 



ON AND FROM THE PACIFIC. 19 

28, and in a short time reached Ogden, the end of 
the Union Pacific Railroad, owned mainly in Boston 
and New York, and the beginning of the Central 
Pacific Railroad, owned all in San Francisco and 
Sacramento. The sun was hot ; but hot suns here 
are not like hot suns, East — the air is so dry and ex- 
hilarating. A long-troubling cough I brought w^ith 
me from "Washington is rapidly going, and when I 
reach the Alkali plains I am sure it will all be gone, 
This is the very land for consumption, bronchitis, 
or the like, if patients are not too far gone ; though 
Brigham Young told us, in his discourse, his voice 
was about worn up, though his body was as vigorous 
as ever. But, May 29, strange to say — a phenome- 
non here now — a heavy rain met us, succeeded by a 
snow-storm, re-whitening all the mountains, covering 
even the Alkali plains, and making them whiter 
than the Alkali. But the rain and snow saved us from 
the trying dust of these plains. Our cars were as 
pleasant as ever, and we have been in them so long 
now, that they seem like home — sweet home, too, 
when contrasted with the rough cabins we often pass 
in the rough-looking towns and villages. The wind- 
mills increase, forcing up the water for the railroad 
tanks. There are three stations where water has to 
be brought in car-tanks to feed the locomotives. 
" Lots of Indians," dirty, filthy Piutes, are out beg- 
ging whiskey, or money to buy whiskey with. 
" Backsheesh " squaws, in the "West as well as in the 
East, sling papooses over their backs to touch the 



20 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

sympathies of ladies in the cars. The morning of 
the 29th we passed the Summit House of the Sierra 
Nevada, hid, however, in the midst of high snow- 
sheds; but the snow, as I should judge from peeps 
through the crevasses, was nearly a foot deep. 
Icicles were trickling down these snow-sheds. Slid- 
ing on the board walks of the restaurant places was 
the traveller's fun. These snow-sheds on these moun- 
tain sides are " cursed " by travellers, when panting 
to see the mountain tops. " Plague on them," was 
the universal cry for forty miles ; but they save the 
traveller from all delays in the winter, and are here 
indispensably necessary to keep open the road. Two 
engines took up our long train of cars, lengthened 
the night before by an Uncle Sam's cavalry troop, 
bound from Fort McDermot, in Nevada, to Arizona 
(via Benicia), to fight the Camanches there. Soon, 
however, very soon (two hours and forty minutes), 
we were in the valley of the rich Sacramento — the 
hay harvest over, the wheat ready to cut, apricots 
and strawberries and cherries abundant, new potatoes 
on our table, every surrounding seeming like mid- 
summer, the sun hot and high, and vegetation all 
parched up, save the ever-green grape-vines. Is this 
America ? Is this in our country % Isn't it in Lom- 
bardy, from the Alpine descent, or, on the Po, or, 
further on southward, in Naples, say, near the lava 
of Vesuvius % Sometimes the cars come down from 
the Sierra all covered with snow, while the dust is 
blowing in the streets of Sacramento ! 






OK AND FROM THE PACIFIC. 21 

Sacramento is the ambitious capital of California, 
with a huge, costly dome on a State-house, now aris- 
ing, and not yet done. I thought, two years ago, 
when here, I had dropped down from the Alps into 
Milan — such were the fruits, and such were the 
seeming luxuries of the climate. But we tarry here 
no more. " On," " on" ever " on," is the law of the 
steam-car. " Fifteen minutes for dinner," never over 
twenty-five or thirty. The wonder is, we Ameri- 
cans do not all die, eating as we do ; but we take 
on lunch baskets here and elsewhere, cherries, boxes 
of strawberries, apricots, California claret, Yankee 
doughnuts even, strayed thus far (crullers is the 
Middle States or California name for them) ; and 
thus, you see, we cannot starve. Sacramento is one 
hundred and thirty-five miles by rail from San Fran- 
cisco, about sixty or seventy by the shortest rail and 
water route. 

Speaking of railroads, I find here not a little 
excitement about a new rail route to run from San 
Francisco, not so much over, as around the Sierras, 
to Ogden, to connect with the Union Pacific there. 
Eich men and richer resources are in the new idea. 
The plan, substantially, is to use the existing Vallejo 
and Marysville Railroad, and from thence to fork off, 
connecting with Ben Holliday's Portland (Oregon) 
Boad, through the Willamette Valley, and thence, 
from Klamath Lake down to Snake Biver. The 
Central Railroad people say this route will be two 
hundred or three hundred miles longer; the new 



22 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

railroad people say, forty miles shorter. Surveys 
alone can settle the question ; but sooner or later, if 
for nothing else, for the Oregon trade, this road will 
be made ; and the Union Pacific will have two forks, 
one, on to San Francisco (the Central), and the other, 
into Oregon and San Francisco. There is room here 
for all. 

I have a thousand pleasant things to say of this 
rising city — this 'New York of the Pacific West 2 its 
Japan and Chinese gateway, aud Australia's gate- 
way, too, where steamers are now running, under 
the invigorating auspices of our Wm. H. Webb, who 
is here, looking after his line. I see on the wharves 
of the Pacific Mail Company, coffee, said to be as 
good as the Java, from Central America, and sugar, 
in quantities, in bags, and cassia, etc., all things 
indicating a fresh, growing commerce. But the big 
ship Japan has her steam up, threatening to cut me 
off, if I go on pencilling longer ; and so you will not 
hear from me again till I am "down East," some- 
where among the Antipodes, who are under our feet, 
just now. Am I going East, or West, to-day ? 
What say geographers? Is Japan down East, or 
farther out West? Is this the end of "the great 
West," or, the beginning of that unknown land our 
starting point? My head is all agog with these 
extraordinary geographical and time calculations. 
My watch is not worth a sixpence, measured by New 
York time. While we breakfast, yoil dine, and while 
we dine, you go to bed. I telegraph, and you get 



ON AND FROM THE PACIFIC. 23 

j my telegram before it starts. How will it be in the 
J East, or the West, where I am going ? I am losing 
1 a day of my life now by travelling. Shall I gain it 
I by keeping on ? We shall see. But — " All on board 
: that's going ! " and I close. "Adieu," " adieu." 



LETTER IV. 

ON TEE PACIFIC. 

From the Golden Gate to Yokohama. — The "Japan," and the motley Crowd on 
board. — Is, or is not, the Pacific Ocean a Humbug ? — The Amusements on board. 
— The Police of the Ship.— Spoke a Boston Ship.— Meeting a Steamer in Mid- 
ocean, exchanging Mails, etc. 

June 1, 1871. 

We are passing the Golden Gate, and the broad 
Pacific is opening around us for a long, long voyage 
— four thousand seven hundred and eighty miles to 
Yokohama, in Japan, twenty-two days off, if not 
more, the rate we are to run. What a motley 
crowd we have just taken on board — the returning 
Japanese, Governor Ito & Co., who have just been 
making the tour of the United States, with Japan- 
ese women (not belonging to them, though), very 
much resembling our Indian squaws, but pretty 
well dressed, and with more intelligence ; hundreds 
of Chinese, almost all men, but a few women, who 
have made "their fortune" in America, now re- 
turning home to enjoy it; and Englishmen, travel- 
ling for pleasure, and Germans, and Scotchmen, 
and the universal Yankee nation, of course. A 
Chinese " fortune " — happy people — is only three or 



ON THE PACIFIC. 25 

four hundred dollars, not the New York three or four 
millions ; and the " heathen Chinee " is happy in hav- 
ing earned enough to live hereafter magnificently at 
home. They scattered bits of paper on the water 
as we left the wharf, to appease their Joss (the God) 
of the Sea, and to bribe him to give us a prosperous 
voyage. "We have three missionary women on board, 
from Albany and near by, going to Japan, to turn 
the Buddhists there into Christians — hopeless task, 
I fear. All these, with Chinese sailors, all, or nearly 
all, to manage the ship — Chinese servants, all — a 
Yankee captain, from Cape Cod, of course — a doctor, 
a purser, a steward, etc., make up our motley crowd, 
and are to be our companions over three weeks, on 
the way. 

The sailing of a steamship from a Pacific port is 
an affair very different from that of the sailing of an 
Atlantic steamship from Eew York. All Chin adorn 
and Japonicadom come down to see us off. The 
hard, harsh jangle of Chinadom on the wharf, scream- 
ing " adieux," was mingled with the softer, gentler, 
and more. Tuscan-like notes of the Japanese; while 
English, and German, and French, and Italian, and 
Spanish, in our cabin, bade the politer adieu. "We 
took on provisions enough to feed a city — bullocks, 
beasts of other kinds, sheep, henneries and duckeries, 
with tenants too full to count ; vegetables, fresh from 
the Eden gardens of California ; fruits of many kinds, 
with apricots and strawberries, luscious to look at 
now, however they may look, or taste, when Neptune 



26 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

exacts his tributes from us, a few hours hence. We 
shall live, I see, if we do not die of sea-sickness. 



June 3. 

The Pacific Ocean is a humbug. For twenty-four 
hours I have been tossed, and rocked, and turned 
inside out, just as I have been on that rough, boister- 
ous, reckless bosom of waters they call the Atlantic, 
that never made any pretensions to gentleness or 
gentility. There is nothing Pacific on this ocean as 
yet. This is the second time I have tried it, north- 
ward, though, once before, as far up as Vancouver ; 
but the captain promises better behavior from the 
winds and the waves, as soon as we get far enough 
off from the northerly winds of the California and 
Oregon coast. 



June 6. 

The Pacific Ocean is not a humbug ; but the best- 
behaved, best-looking sea I ever was on. There has 
not been a ripple on the water for forty-eight hours. 
There is not a sea-sick victim on board. Sunday, 
June 4, the captain read the Episcopal service in 
" the Social Hall," the upper, frescoed, lookout deck 
of the ship, and all the Christians on board assembled 
to hear him — not the Buddhists, nor the devotees of 
Confucius, of course. Our missionary women sang 
their hymns, and the piano, acting as organ, accom- 



ON THE PACIFIC. 27 

panied tliem. We read, we write, we play shuffle- 
board on deck (not on Sunday, though), and pitch 
quoits, with cards and backgammon, and walk and 
talk. The Japanese are reading Japanese novels, 
with illustrative pictures all over them, quite equal- 
ling the genius of the New York publishers, or 
instructing us in words we deem it necessary to 
learn. " Ohio " means " good morning," and in the 
morning we " ohio " all we see. Thus we pass time, 
with the five meals per day, if we choose to eat so 
many, but with appetites that seem insatiable after 
our tributes to the sea. 

The police of this ship is so admirable that I must 
give the captain, Freeman, a puff therefor. There is 
a cry of " Fire," " Fire" — that terrible cry aboard 
ship, in mid-Pacific sea — but a rnock cry here, to test 
the crew, and on the instant, every Chinaman is at 
his post, with streams of water flowing from hose all 
over the deck, and ready to rush anywhere he is sent. 
The life-boat is unrolled, and the India-rubber, can- 
vas-covered raft is blown up in a very short time. 
The captain took some of us, last evening, all over 
his ship. The neatness of the cuisine, the pantry, 
and all the outworks indicate a husbandry, I must 
say — not housewivery, for men do all the work — not 
unsurpassed even by the Rotterdam or Amsterdam 
Dutch. The stores of the ship all pass through the 
purser's accounts, and double entry, or single entry, 
tell the owners of every thing in or out. The Chinese 
passengers on board, some of them, are going to their 



28 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

bunks ; some are smoking opium in nearly an air- 
tight cage set apart especially for them to indulge 
that vice in, and others reading, or telling tales, or 
playing on the banjo, we call it, with a chip. Happy 
they all seemed — the happiest of all, in seeming, the 
half-drunk opium-smokers, but all happy, in return- 
ing home to Hong-Kong, at fifty dollars only of cost, 
with rice enough to eat, mixed up with pork, and 
devoured with chop-sticks — a provender far better 
than any food they are likely to have hereafter at 
home. At 11 p. m., " Douse the glim " is the order of 
the night, and we all go to bed — Christians, Buddh- 
ists, Confuciusists, Europeans, men, women, chil- 
dren, all — when watchmen in every part of the ship 
watch over us and protect us during the night. I 
feel as safe — I hope I am not to be mistaken — as in 
my own bedroom at home, and the doors here are all 
unlocked, and the windows open to let in the refresh- 
ing air. 

" /Ship ahoy ! " That's a refreshing sound, even 
on the Atlantic sea, where ships are crossing and re- 
crossing all the time, and where you can see one 
almost every day. But here on the Pacific there are 
few or no ships, and little or no crossing and recross- 
ing, so that " Ship ahoy ! " startles us all up, and we 
all rush to our glasses to see. As the morn broke in 
upon us, a big ship, under full sail, was descried 
crossing our course, and soon we saw the American 
flag, and soon after a boat put out to meet us. The 
ship was a Boston ship, the Daniel Marcy, one hun- 



ON THE PACIFIC. 29 

dred and sixty-three days from JSTew York, having 
left before Christmas, and seen nothing since ; passed 
Cape Horn, lost her longitude, and wanted to know 
where she was. There was a woman on board with 
four sick children, seen on deck — how many under, 
deponent cannot say — and for one hundred and sixty- 
three days no news, no newspapers, no telegraphs, 
no nothing on board that ship ! "Well, that's what I 
came here for — not exactly to get out of the world, 
but to be upon that part of the world where " no 
nothing " could get after me. Our captain gave his 
Yankee confrere^ for the benefit of his wife and 
babies, two bags of new (California) potatoes, fresh 
beef, fresh mutton, and fresh newspapers ; and, when 
all that had got on board the Daniel Marcy, there 
must have been happiness there, to say nothing of 
the " longitude." 

Latitude 36° 50', longitude 142° 10'. " The Mail 
closes to-night at 6 p. m.," is posted up on our ship. 
"What meaneth this ? Why, the steamer from Japan 
(left Yokohama on the 22d of May) is to meet us to- 
night, or to-morrow, and we must all have our letters 
ready to send home to our friends. Hence, every- 
body is writing home ; the ladies with their desks on 
their knees (what a gift they have in being able to 
write anyhow, or everywhere !), and we gentlemen, 

| in the cabin, or in our state-rooms, on our wash- 
stands. Pen, ink, paper, and pencil are in the great- 
est demand. The meeting of the steamers is to be 

! another great event, and we are to give them news 



30 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

from Europe and America, and they are to give ns 
news from Niphon, and the Tycoon, or the Mikado. 
There are " politics " in Japan, I am learning, as in 
the United States, and I am becoming as interested 
in Mikados and Tycoons as in General Grant or St. 
Domingo. "What's the news from — not New York, 
but the Corea ? Our little fleet, I hear, has gone up 
to open Corea, or Korea — a part of the Chinese ap- 
pendage dominion not yet opened by gunpowder. 
"What is the value of an Itzebu (Japanese paper 
money), two New York shillings, or three ? " " How 
are we to live or board in Yedo ? " " "Will the Dai- 
mio's retainers stab or cut up us, foreign devils % " as 
the Chinese call us. These are all most important 
questions ; but the Japanese on board say we shall 
have no trouble, and shall travel as pleasantly as in 
New York or California. "We shall see. 



LETTEE V. 

oisr THE PA OIF I a. 

Life and Thoughts on Ship-board. — The Day Lost in Hounding the "World. — 
"Down East" is out West. — A Puzzled Traveller. — Summer Life on this Ocean. 
— The Second Exchange of Letters. — The Sixteenth Amendment — Curious 
Congregation of Passengers. 

June, 1871— Lat. 36° K, Lon. 180° E. 

No date, yon see. We have dropped out Friday, 
which ought to be June 16th, 1871, but we have 
dropped it out (a dies non), and it is Saturday now, 
1 June IT. We have not had any Friday, and never 
! shall have any June 16. There are but six days to 
us this week— nay, only five, from Sunday to Sun- 
day. I am puzzling over this in geography and on 
chart, and, though doubtless it is all clear enough to 
the navigator and astronomer, I have found it not 
so easy to store it away in my head. "Watches, days 
and days ago, I found to be good for nothing to the 
traveller by steam, but the sudden loss of faith in 
almanacs and the calendar is confusing. London, I 
am told, is just under our feet, or Greenwich rather, 
the astronomer's headquarters, and we are 180° (of 
the 360°), around the world, that is, half around — 
from Greenwich, and we have, therefore, lost a day, 
by the chronometer time of Greenwich. I expect to 



32 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

have all this clear by the time I get to Greenwich, 
but nothing is very clear just now in my muddled 
mind, save that there is no " Friday, June 16," for 
us, as for the rest of mankind. "We are not in Gibeon 
nor the Yalley of Ajalon, with enemies to avenge, as 
Joshua had, when he ordered the sun and moon to 
stand still ; but, the sun stands still to us, in this wild 
wilderness of waters, as we lose the day, and there is 
no Friday, June 16, 1871, to us, and there never will } 
be! 

But, as one approaches the portals of the rising 
sun, one must expect to be puzzled. Every thing i 
ahead is beginning to be, or seems to be, topsy-turvy 
We are going West, and have been going West some fe 
sixteen days, to get East. We are going to the set- 
ting of the sun to approach its rising ! In my early 
days in Maine the more " down East " I went, the 
more I saw of the " Eastern stage," promising to take 
passengers further East. I then searched for that jo 
" East " at the head of the Bay of Fundy, but I gave k 
it up, as there was then running an "Eastern stage ! " I 
In later days, Cincinnati was " West," Chicago, the |I 
" far West," and St. Paul's and St. Louis, the end of b 
-'the boundless West;" but here I am, some twen- i\ 
ty-three days from New York, all the while going 
West, and that " Will o' the Wisp " is not reached, 
and never will be. As if all these things could not 
enough puzzle one, or seem enough topsy-turvy, I jt 
see the Japanese and Chinese on board reading up- I 
side down, from right to left, in perpendicular in- I 



ON THE PACIFIC. 33 

stead of horizontal lines, and their books begin 
where ours end — the preface, where onr finis is. 
Their locks on their boxes and trunks are all made 
to lock by turning the key from the left to the right. 
Their carpenters use the plane by drawing it to 
them, and their tailors stitch from them. All this, 
perhaps, is not to be wondered at among people 
whose night is our day, and whose heads are under 
our heels, but they confuse one's senses, more espe- 
cially when one sees a day dropped out from under 
one, and the sun, as it were, standing still without a 
miracle ! 

I have been hesitating for some days whether or 
not I shall give the Pacific Ocean a good character 
or a bad one ; but, upon the whole, I have concluded 
it deserves a certificate, more especially in contrast 
with the Atlantic, the English Channel, the Bay of 
Fundy, the Mediterranean, Lake Ontario, or any 
other like rowdy seas. The Pacific, though, if a 
taking, is rather a cheating, Christian name, for it 
does kick up and flop over at times, and flutters often. 
It is not everlastingly pacific, that is certain ; but, 
upon the whole, it is a pretty-well-behaved ocean — 
this part of it at least, where no typhoons or cyclones 
rage. In June, a big steamer like this, the Japan, 
with plenty of men on board, is a yacht that a New 
York commodore might envy, and such as Cleopatra, 
who led astray so many Eomans in her galley, never 
dreamed of. And we carry with us a sort of minia- 
ture Newport or New London ; we eat, we drink, 






34: A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

we make merry, we dance, we sing ; material pleas- 
ures only, but we read, we write, we think, we preach, 
we pray, we do every thing on board that people 
do at Newport or Long Branch in summer, besides 
having two Sundays now in one week. Sure, an 
ocean where all this can be done, deserves a certifi- 
cate of good character, and it is hereby written — 

That if, in summer, a man with his family would 
go a yachting, on a pleasure " trip " only, there is | 
nothing like this on the Pacific, more especially if 
on one's way to Japan to see the drolleries and curi- r 
osities of the East, where something new must ever 
turn up, and something fresh must ever be seen. 

There is a pleasure even in having one's senses & 
muddled, as mine are, in the loss of a real live day, i) 
and in being among people who turn every thing in 
side out or upside down. jj 

Besides the study of navigation on board ship,|: 
" horizon," " altitude," " parallax," etc., etc., wet 
naturally study up and talk of a great many other;! 
things. The " Japs " are educating us on their re- 
cent revolutions, on the Tycoon, Mikado, and Daimio 
nobles, and telling us how to travel in Niphon, or re- 
lating the marvels of Yedo. We see them readt 
their novels, and we beg for translations thereof. Ja- 
pan already has become quite familiar with us. While; 
America has our hearts, with all that is in it — that! 
America, now so far away, and so rapidly running; 
under our feet — we much discuss which is the nearni 
est route to Japan and China, whether over Puget 



ON THE PACIFIC. 35 

Sound or by San Francisco. Longitude narrows, 
you know, as we reach the North Pole; hence, 
Puget Sound (north) is, on the great circle, nearer 
than San Francisco (south) ; but there is no sailing 
on that great circle. There are islands northward in 
the way, and the winds are not favorable. Yoko- 
hama, Japan, however, is 4,780 miles as we sail on 
the chart from San Francisco, but only 4,100 miles 
from Puget Sound, so that over 603 miles can be 
saved from the Sound over the North Pacific Pail- 
road — say from New York to Yokohama, now the 
great seaport of Japan, and en route to Shanghai and 
Hong Kong. The San Francisco journalists, how- 
ever, will not admit this — nay, will cipher it away, 
or try to ; but I have measured it on the chart, and 
it seems truly so. Puget Sound, too, is the best in- 
ternal sheet of water in the United States (hand non 
expertus loquor), navigable to the very shores, well 
timbered, and the climate by no means so cold as 
the latitude indicates. We discuss lines of tele- 
graph, too. "We Yankees now must reach the East. 
John Bull has just stretched his wiry arms out 
beyond Bombay and Calcutta, and his " tick " is now 
heard from London to Shanghai, and in the Yang- 
Tze-Kiang — the Amazon and Mississippi of the Chi- 
nese world. What can we do % How can we thus 
" tick ? " We must bargain with the Russians, it 
seems to me, and stretch our wires through Alaska 
and the Aleutian Islands to Petropaulauski in Kam- 
schatka, and thence down the Kurile Islands to 



36 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

Japan, thence to Saghalin (now a long Russian isl- 
and, stolen from the Japanese), and thence to the 
Amoor or Manchuria. The two great friendly Gov- 
ernments can thus encircle the world, and be in- 
dependent of all Europe, save Russia in Europe. 
The real greatness of Russia is now for the first time 
bursting upon my vision — not Russia in Europe J 
for I comprehended all that, but Russia in Asia/ 
which now commands the frontier of China, and, ins 
commanding the sea of Japan, and the sea of Ok-? 
hotsh, commands, also, more or less, the whole North 1 
Pacific Ocean. We ignorant politicians have much 
to learn from our whalers, even, I see ; and I ami 
hearing, on ship board, their voyages, their tales, andf 
adventures, and no romances are more delightful 
reading just now. 

"Well, well; with no telegraph, no newspapers,, 
no nothing about us but a whale or two, and sea-j 
gulls, and white birds, and porpoises — politics, norl 
electricity, nor rails, ought ever to enter our brains ; 
but bad habits of thinking follow one, even whenj 
sent off to rest. And sure, there is no rest like thisf 
on the Pacific. Eating is the great order of the day J 
"We eat, if we please, at 6 a. m. (a sort of French! 
breakfast, tea, coffee, and crust), really breakfast at 
9 a. m., lunch at noon, dine at 6 p. m., and tea 
&§-. Next to eating, if not over, or above it, is sleeps 
ing. We sleep and we eat; we eat and we sleep. 
When Sancho Panza exclaimed, " Blessed be the 
man that invented sleep," he was thinking, doubts 



1!); 



ON THE PACIFIC. 37 



less, only of Castile and Arragon; but doubly 
blessed be the man tbat invented sleep for the Pacific 
Ocean. The days would be endless if we did not 
sleep, and the nights are endless, though we do sleep. 
We have not spoken or seen a ship since, days ago, 
we met by arrangement the steamer from China to 
San Francisco, with some one thousand two hundred 
Chinese on board, a sea of heads, bald and pig-tailed, 
going over to try their fortunes in America. We 
see nothing on the Pacific but birds, that follow us 
for our offal, or porpoises, or a whale or two. We 
seem far beyond the reach of commerce, or civiliza- 
tion, or any of their tracks. No " ship ahoy " greets 
us ; no smoke from, the pipe of some distant steamer. 
What an eternal waste of waters ! Will it ever end % 
We shall see. 



Jwne 23. 

Now over three weeks on board, and we are 
hoping to meet the outward-bound steamer from 
Yokohama, and send off letters to America by her. 
The fog is against us, however. We are in the Gulf 
Stream, the Kuro Siwo of Japan, and the warmer 
water is sending up fogs and rain. It is now the 
rainy season in Japan, and we shall be lucky if we 
see the coast before we are right on it. 

The week we have passed since I began this sketch- 
ing or scribbling, as you please to call it, has not been 



38 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

a week without incidents. We have three mission- 
ary ladies on board, intending to pass some years in 
Japan, instructing Japanese children, to convert 
them from their heathenism, if they can ; but the 
Japs on board give them very little encouragement. 
These ladies are Mrs. Pruyn of Albany, Mrs. Pier- 
son of Michigan, and Miss Crosby of Poughkeepsie. 
Mrs. Pruyn favored us with a discourse on Sunday. 
Discovering the capacity of these ladies, in a mock 
trial we had of a Teuton for stealing the sponge of a 
Scot, we put two of them on the jury and made the 
other the official reporter of the case. They dis- 
charged their duties so well that we all begin to think 
better of the 16th Amendment. 

Among our Japs on board are two returning from 
Italy, where they have been with silk-worms' eggs, 
on cards, to sell. This has become a great specula- 
tion, and the Japs are going into it with zeal. The 
Japs almost always — always when they can — take 
cabin passages ; the Chinese seldom, or never. We 
have several well-off, if not rich, Chinamen on board ; 
but they have preferred herding with their country- 
men and living on rice and pork to living with us, 
or with the Japanese, in the cabins. The Chinese 
are intensely economical, it seems ; the Japanese far 
less calculating. We have also on board four or five 
Americans going out to offer their services to the 
Emperor of China, as sailors, officers, or engineers, 
for their navy. One of them already has had com- 
mand of a Chinese gunboat, and fought the rebels 



ON THE PACIFIC. 39 

and pirates. Another was shipwrecked in Corea, 
where Admiral Eogers has gone with our fleet to 
admonish the Coreans, and he tells a terrible tale of 
suffering, inflicted by them and by the Chinese Tar- 
tars, to whom the Coreans handed him over. 

Thus, in our motley company of the world's rep- 
resentatives, we hear and tell tales, exchange or 
" swap " experiences, and a log might be made up 
of our mutual narratives, more interesting, probably, 
than any of the books in our ship's library. But, if 
we are to meet the California-bound steamer off the 
Japan coast, this yarn must be spun no longer, and 
so I bite off, and notch up the thread. 



LETTEE VI. 

FIEST IMPRESSIONS IN JAPAN. 

Arrival in Japan.— First Impressions on the Coast. — The Fishermen in "Georgia 
Costume." — Everything New, Everything Odd. — Bamboo Baskets for Hats. — 
Straw Overcoats.— Landing on the Hatoba — The Cues of the Japanese.— The 
Brawny Coolies. — Travelling Eestaurants. — Strange Street Spectacles. — The Tat- 
tooed Men. — The Horse Boy (Betto).— Hair Dressing. — Shocking Black Teeth 
of the Married Women. 

Yokohama, June 26, 1871. 

Something new ! Every thing new, at last ! Un- 
der your world now, how every thing in this world 
seems up-side down, and clown-side up ! I feel very 
like, nay, just like, the Boston Yankee, who first saw 
Boston, and felt his rural ideas revolving within his 
head, and I act more like Ben Franklin, the printer, 
when he first turned up in Philadelphia, with both 
eyes as open as saucers, munching his roll, staring at, 
and astounded by every thing. Long and long ago, 
after travelling over many lands, I was sure I had 
reached the Horatian nil admirari — but I am mis- 
taken, for. I am wondering over every thing to-day. 

At daybreak on the Sabbath morning our good 
ship bade good-bye to the pretty-well-behaved Pa- 
cific, and turned a cape and the light-houses that 
opened on us the bay of Yedo. Up early, to see 
and to study, the first living things to refresh our 



FIRST IMPRESSIONS IN JAPAN. 41 

long ocean-wearied eyes were the fishermen of the 
island of Mphon. Keport says (I have not tried its 
truth) that Japan is about the best fishing ground of 
the universe. You know (or if you don't, you ought), 
that in the Boston State House, over the Speakers 
chair, is a codfish, the emblem of Massachusetts' rise, 
progress, and prosperity before the days of East 
India ships and the spinning jenny. The fish, in 
like manner, is reverenced here in Japan. It is a 
basis of Japan life and prosperity. Hence, I levelled 
eyes and glasses, as naturally man will, on the first 
life seen — that is, on the fishermen. What queer 
boats ! "What queer oars, or sculls ! What queer- 
looking sails, of mats ! Boreas can hardly blow over 
such broad-cast boats. Nobody rows — everybody 
sculls ; and they scull with one oar, two, three, four, 
Sive, six — as many as need be for the boat or junk — 
and they scull as fast as they could row, in such 
heavy and clumsy boats. History says — wharf-his- 
tory, I never read it in books, but it may be true— 
that when the Tycoons and Daimios found the Jap- 
anese sculling off, or sailing off, from Japan, they 
ordered the better class of Chinese junks, that the 
Japanese had been imitating, to be so constructed that 
they could never well get over to China — aye, to be so 
heavy, so clumsy, that Neptune, in his roaring moods, 
would tip them over, or roll them under, if ever they 
ventured out of sight of land. Hence the ugliness of 
these junks, and ocean-uselessness. The June Califor- 
nia steamer, out from here, picked up the crew of one, 



42 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 



three-fourths of thern starved to death, because they 
could not find their way only from Hiogo to Yoko- 
hama, having been blown outside of land. The 
fishermen we met, such of them as had seines, were 
scaring the fish into them by pounding furiously on 
the bottom of the boats! Can this be done? I 
charge nothing to the Cape Codders for letting them 
into the Japanese secret of catching fish. But what 
most astonished us new comers was the Georgia 
costume, minus the spurs, of these interesting fisher- 
men ! The fishermen were as naked as the fish — that 
is, the most of these fishermen ! Some of them had 
something on, but nothing to speak of. Anatomy 
could be studied practically, as well as phrenology, 
and physiognomy, and physiology — that is, muscu- 
lar and venous anatomy. Some of our passengers, 
at first, were a little confused and confounded over 
this new development of life, and dropped their 
lorgnettes; but I see the same passengers now in 
Yokohama streets, and they are done blushing al- 
ready. 

The first day an American spends in Europe, say 
in England (I speak now for myself), is a great day, 
if not the greatest, of his life. The beautifully green 
fields, the hedges, the cottages, etc., bewitch him ; 
but this first day in this Eastern Asia does not 
exactly bewitch so much as it bedevils a traveller. 
The livery of a trading company's boatman, sent out 
to escort home a passenger by the steamer — what 
was it, think you ? A little turban on the head, 



i 

.! 



FIRST IMPRESSIONS IN JAPAN. 43 

with nakedness to the hips, and then a yellow sash 
girdle, over blue nankin trowsers, running into straw 
shoes ! "Was not this a novel livery % Can any of the 
grandees of Hyde Park, or of the Central Park, come 
quite up to this great swell ? Then numerous police, 
or custom-house boats, crowded around us, the most 
of the boatmen with respectable clothes on (not all), 
some with one sword, others, with two. Some of 
them had on baskets for bonnets, or hats, made of 
straw or bamboo ; others, with heads wrapped up in 
handkerchiefs; others, with nothing on their heads 
but their cues, not pig-tails of Chinese magnificence, 
but short pipe-stem cues, on the top of the crown. 
A hundred boats, as usual, were clamorous and 
greedy for one passenger, and hundreds of hands 
were ready to grab every trunk and carpet-bag — 
ISTew York, as well as Yokohama life, you will add. 
The arrival of a Pacific Mail steamer from California 
is a great event in Yokohama, and soon the ship was 
full of Europeans, to see and to study what was 
going on. One thing strange — but that must be 
noted — was a large delegation of California women 
to welcome their forlorn sisters, ever coming over 
here upon desperate sinful speculation. The men of 
the East — the European men, I mean — far outnum- 
ber the women, and hence such scenes as this I 
describe. As we landed our missionary sisters, and 
took in these frail ones, what a pity, it seemed to me, 
that Christian San Francisco could not be purified 



44 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

before this embassy was made to the Buddhists and 
Sintoos of Yokohama ! 

The Japan custom-house officers are not very 
particular as to baggage, not even looking into it, 
though very peculiar. They have ears, but our lingo 
is not theirs, and hence they profit in nothing there- 
from ; and they have eyes, but they see nothing 
custom-house-ward thereby. Hence, we slip and 
slide in, without the least trouble — but their five per 
cent, ad valorem is not the forty, and fifty, and one 
hundred per cent, in our American civilization ; and, 
therefore, there is not so much need of our American 
spying or searching. Soldiers with not very alarm- 
ing-looking muskets, save in their sword bayonets, 
watch over " the Bund," as they call it here — a sort 
of pier or wharf. In custom-house tongue it might 
be called a gate or portcullis. We pass them, and 
then began a series of cryings or yellings that scare 
fresh-come European or American horses half to 
death, and even frighten our passenger dogs, and 
would frighten us, if we were not now expecting any 
thing and every thing new. " Yeow," " yeow," or 
"yow," "yow," or "yew," "yew," or something 
like it in the cat-mewing line, are screaming whole 
battalions of porters, and carriers ; and men-horses 
are dragging, on miserable round plank wheels, gran- 
ite, and timber, or lumber. " Yeow," "yeow," goes up 
to heaven, and rolls over all the earth. It is " yeow," 
" yeow," at daybreak in the morning, and " yeow," 
all night, among the coolie Japs, loading and unloading 



FIRST IMPRESSIONS IN JAPAN. 45 

the ships in the harbor. There is no need of horses 
(I have already come to that conclusion), or elephants, 
where men can carry such loads. When, years ago, 
off Constantinople, I first saw men turned into horses, 
I thought that was something wonderful ; but these 
one-horse Japs, with their enormous loads, shame the 
Turks, the Grand Turks, even. What glorious mus- 
cular legs they have, so admirably developed ! I wish 
I had a pair of them to trot over the world with. 
What brawny arms, pointed off, though, with little 
hands ! Gymnast or boxer would have to stand back 
in " a primary," where a fellow had such props, or 
such pointers. There, comes a travelling restaurant ! 
That's the way to live, where your dinner comes on 
a fellow's shoulders to you, a whole score of you, and 
where you do not have to go to the dinner — where 
rice and chop-sticks, and fish, raw fish, too, are all 
ready for you — where you can squat down on a mat, 
and have a Delmonico treat for only a few " cash," 
that is two, or three, or four " Tempos " — not five 
cents, even — none of your five-dollar "Delmonico's !" 
There's life, there's happiness, there's economy. True, 
it rains ; but has not the fellow a basket-hat on, that 
sheds all rain as well as all sun ? — not a mere para- 
pluie, a rain-shedder, as the French call it, but an 
umbrella, or ombrella, too, in Latina lingua. And 
has he not brought out, too, to shed the rain, a great 
straw cloak, or mantilla, that covers all but his legs, 
and his one-story mounted shoes, or pattens, tied on 
by a roj)e of braided straw? If it were not for the 



46 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

looks of the thing, among the Yankee and English 
aristocracy of Yokohama, I would squat down and 
try the rice (not the raw fish) of that dinner. If one 
could only learn to squat like a Jap, one never would 
again use a chair, or a sofa. The fact is, in many 
things, " civilization," as it is called, is a humbug. 
Squatting on a clean mat, if you have only been 
brought up to do it, I am sure, from what I see here, 
is easier and preferable to sitting in a chair. The 
muscles of the legs have only to be trained from 
babyhood up, and a chair becomes as much of a nui- 
sance as now is to us this mat. See how nicely our 
children squat, or young ladies, even, who will sew 
or write in bed, or on the floor, and by hours, too, 
without a groan. Hence, I reason, some of our 
civilization may be a humbug, if not much of it. 
There, are a lot of tumble boys, funny fellows, with 
caps on their heads, stuck with red and black feathers, 
looking like roosters' combs, who roll up, and roll 
over, like balls of dirt, and then roll all together. . . 
They want only " a cash," a tenth part of a cent, thus 
to tumble, over and over. " All-Eight," in the Amer- 
ican-Japanese jugglers' corps, was thus trained in a 
Japan street, and graduated in that school. There, 
is a mother with a baby on her back, slung d la 
American Indian papoose, and the poor baby is fast 
asleep, with its head toppling all about. The mother, 
perhaps, would not have much, if any, clothes on, if 
it had not been necessary for her to throw over her 
the sack for the baby to sleep or live in. There, is a 



FIRST IMPRESSIONS IN JAPAN. 47 

carpenter, pulling his Ibreplane toward him, not 
pushing from him, beautifully clad — exquisitely, I 
may add. No French modiste even could have 
clothed him richer, with a livery on, that no French 
high chamberlain could devise better ; but the poor 
devil's only clothes, save a cotton scroll about his 
loins, and his straw shoes, were his skin, tattooed 
with all sorts of tortoises, storks, and other Jap di- 
vinities. It cost only three and a half dollars, that 
livery, they tell me, and it is the pride and glory of a 
true Jap to have it. You could not buy a hat in 
New York for that, you know. But to earn the 
three dollars and a half to get the livery, that's the 
difficulty. That surplus is a year's saving ; and if it 
were not so, all Japanese of the working classes 
would have on the livery. There, is a wrestler, a 
big, burly fellow, the picked man of his clan, who 
was big enough to pass for a European. Wrestling 
here is of a quasi noble profession ... It entitles 
a man to have two swords on, and to look down on 
common fellows. An actor in Japan is nothing — no- 
body — ranking only with beggars, while the wrestler 
is a grand cockalomim. An actor has no rank, no 
honors, and everybody looks down upon his (with 
us) great profession, and the only social difference 
between him and the beggar is, that he may rise — 
the beggar never. The beggar, by the way, be- 
queaths the profession from sire to son. The boy 
must follow the trade of the father. There is no 
hope, no future for him. Not even the coolie will 



48 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

work in the same gang with him. Put a beggar to 
work in a coolie gang, and every coolie " strikes " at 
once, refusing thus to associate with a beggar. When 
the beggar sees you coming, he prostrates himself on 
his knees, then falls upon the ground, and holds up 
his hand only for " cash." He utters a most woebe- 
gone cry to touch your heart, and to win your sym- 
pathies. There, comes something with two swords 
on, pony-mounted, and his Betto. The betto is a boy 
who follows his lordship's pony, and the pony races, 
and the betto races. Which will beat, ask you? 
The pony never. The betto has on his tattoo livery- 
straw shoes, it may be, — no shoes, perhaps. The 
betto will keep up with that pony day after day, 
thirty miles a day, and no pony can overdo that on 
a journey. This betto takes care of the pony, watches 
over and feeds him, and helps to take care of his 
master, too. There, is hair-dressing going on — public 
hair-dressing — on the front steps of the shop or 
house — one man dressing another man's hair, and 
doing up his cue. The women dress their hair in our 
old mothers' fashion of gone-by times (none of your 
long tails of false hair, said I, dangling behind, with 
a skewer to hold it up on top of the head), beautiful, 
glossy, black hair. " Thank the Lord," said I, to a 
Yokohama American lady, u we have reached a 
country at last, where the women wear only their own 
hair." " You are much mistaken," said she, " all 
that hair on top of Madame Jap's head is false hair." 
Madame shaves off, or cuts off, the original crown, and 



FIRST IMPRESSIONS IN JAPAN. 49 

piles on the false hair. Once a week, only, is the 
hair done up, skewered, and glued, Spanish (Cadiz) 
style, thus defying the winds and the fogs for a whole 
week, and kept in place, nights, while sleeping on 
the mat-bed, with a wooden pillow under the nape 
of the neck. Woman, thus, you see, is woman every- 
where. There is nothing true outside of their heads, 
though all so true and sweet, inside. These black 
teeth, too, of these Japanese Madames, are they not 
terrible % How can husbands ever kiss such black- 
teethed wives ? "When a woman is married here, she 
blackens her teeth, while our wives and daughters, 
when married, put on, not only a marriage ring, but 
all the other rings they can get. Such is fashion. 
But what more sense in the rings, and ear-rings and 
bracelets, these emblems of vassalage — I dare not 
write handcuffs — than in these black teeth ? Never- 
theless, the black teeth are beautiful black teeth, 
molars, and eye-teeth of the first chop. They put on 
some white preparation that turns them black, and 
they renew the operation about every week. These 
Jap women only miss, many of them, being very, 
very pretty. When their copper color is whitened 
up, they would pass for brunettes, even in America. 
But — if they are married — these abominable black 
teeth ! this boca negra ! But fashion is every thing. 
The hoops of our ladies (although not of half the am- 
plitude they once were), their long queues, the sub- 
stitutes for what ought to be bonnets, their flowing 
ringlets (whence come, or how once worn, quien 



50 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 



f) — their corsets, their shoes, their heels, etc., 
astound the poor natives as much as these black teeth 
astound us. The young Japs, however, see in the 
mouths of their fair ones, the most tempting teeth — 
and no mouths are prettier. 

But hold up. I am scribbling of fashion, and 
running into the moralities thereon, and revelling in 
my first day's frolic in Japland. My head is so run- 
ning over with novelties and curiosities that, unless 
I retrace here, and write of the past, all that will be 
forgotten in the exciting present and the teeming 
future. 

Was it not wonderful, meeting in mid-ocean two 
big steamers, at the exact place, and about the exact 
time appointed ? You have, or ought to have had, 
two letters from me, both written on, and mailed on, 
the broad Pacific ! The Pacific Mail Steamship Co. 
try so to arrange time and place that their steamers 
meet twice on the sea, and exchange letters, and 
news, and compliments. Pity there are not some 
islands in the way, for coal, for provisions, etc., as 
well as for letters, but there are not, and so we have 
to make islands of the floating ships, and make ex- 
changes on board of them. No spectacle can be 
more striking, more impressive of the power of man 
over the elements, than these mid-ocean meetings. 
The sea of heads, shaven Chinese heads, one thousand 
two hundred of them in one steamer, filling the 
whole fore-deck, I have already noticed. We find 
out what passengers are going to America, and they 



FIRST IMPRESSIONS IN JAPAN. 51 

who are coming from. "We bring them news from 
America, and they, thus for the first time, on June 
20th, brought us news from Paris to June 9th, by 
telegraph from Paris to Shanghae, and thence by 
steam. This exciting news, nine days later than we 
had at San Francisco, was devoured with zeal. So 
you see I have not quite realized one great aim of my 
visit — that of a repose beyond all the reach of steam 
or telegraph. 

Nor have I dwelt upon the beautiful and extraor- 
dinary scenery that first met our eyes when entering 
the Bay of Yedo, the ever-green fields, the ever- 
green hills, with vegetation all alive from summit 
to base, often terraced, and ever beautiful. This 
Mphon (Japan) island is the Isle of Wight of this 
land of the rising sun. Daimios, richer than English 
nobles, with hundreds and hundreds, nay thousands, 
of retainers, preside and rule over this wonderful 
land. 

There are no people, only millions and millions 
of human beings that we at home call people. No 
Maine Yankee, on first entering into the Hub of the 
Universe (Boston), ever stared more than I do, 
" pumped " more than I do, or is learning more than 
I- am. If you think these rapid, racing, fiy-on, fly- 
away scribblings of mine worth print, print away. I 
have not a moment for revision, nor book-making, 
not even for corresponding. I am jotting down only 
in my note-book, and sending it to you, hereafter to 
read it myself. 



LETTEE VII. 

TEE CITY OF TEDO. 

The First Day in Tedo.— The Bide on the " Tocaido."— Strange Sights there.— The 
Pretty Tea Girls.— The Tiny Tea Cups.— Booms with Paper Partitions.— The 
Beggars. — The Gin-rick-a Sha. — Bide in State along the "Tocaido." — Hogs in 
Baskets. — No Tycoon, only a " Mikado." — How we Stare and how they Stare at 
us.— Great Fire in Yedo. 

Yedo, June 29, 18T1. 

I never in my life worked so hard in one day, 
saw half as much, or learned half as nmch. "Well, in 
this wilderness of men and things where shall I 
begin, or rather where shall I end ? Don't talk to me 
any more of Broadway and its people, of the Strand 
in London, or the Boulevards of Paris ! There is 
one long eternal street from Yokohama to Yedo, 
twenty-four miles long ; not lit by gas, to be sure ; 
not filled with palaces, certainly ; not a hundred 
houses on it being two stories high, for fear earth- 
quakes will topple them over ; not paved with cobble- 
stones or wood, but admirably macadamized — the 
Tocaido they call this long street, the Broadway of 
Japan, but not broader than Pine street, New York ; 
rather the Appian Way of the Romans, for it runs 
the whole length of the island of Niphon, and is the 
royal road for every Jap to go from, and over, in the 
empire. The American Minister, Mr. De Long, 



THE CITY OF YEDO. 53 

honored my party by his presence, in his own car- 
riage, over this Tocaido. Guards of the empire, to 
save ns from said (the whiskey of Japan), and the 
two-sworded rascals that get drnnk on that saki, 
and whip off a head in a twinkle, escorted ns on 
horseback, with stick and lantern, and yelled " hi ! " 
" hi ! " " hi I " to every poor Jap that did not scat- 
ter as the American lightning was coming. I had 
been reading and re-reading the two volumes of Sir 
Eutherford Alcock, the first British minister here 
(then with Townsend Harris, Esq., now of New 
York), and Sir Eutherford had so filled my head with 
bloody visions of Yedo, that I began to consider 
myself lucky if I could only get to, and from Yedo, 
and back, with my head under my arm. That " hi," 
"hi," "hi," and the consequent scattering — that 
" hi," " hi," " hi," I say, from Yaconin guardsmen 
and screaming " betto " (the boy that ran on foot by 
the carriage) has done the business for us, and my 
head is in its usual place, and likely to be, for all I 
can yet see in Yedo. 

All Yedo seems to be moving down the Tocaido 
to Yokohama, and hence the long populousness of 
that Tocaido. "Where gold glitters, there goes Jap, 
and though gold does not exactly glitter in Yoko- 
hama — only paper — paper itzibus (boos we shorten 
the word into), paper oriental English bank notes, and 
paper Japan rios (the dollar) — yet the paper is glit- 
tering enough to tempt the trading Jap down from 
Yedo to the foreign capital of Yokohama. A swamp 



54: A SEVEN MONTHS' KUN. 

there only ten or twelve years ago is now a city of over 
seventy thousand people, and it is growing (in Japs) 
so fast that even Jap houses, which don't cost much, 
cannot be built up fast enough to hold Japs needing 
them. "We Americans, or Englishmen, rather, have 
sacked Japan of its golden kobans (coin) and golden 
itzibus, and we have compelled the Government to 
substitute paper therefor. When Com. Perry first 
landed here, in 1853, all was gold, gold, gold; now 
all is paper, paper, paper, save a stray Mexican dol- 
lar, which has a running value of about eight cents 
beyond the paper. Business stretches out from Yedo 
to run where commerce is, and where teas, silks, and 
bronzed copper, and lacquer ware go — and in twenty 
years more a fourth of Yedo will be on the swamps 
of Kanagawa and Yokohama. 

What I saw on this Tocaido a good ISTew York 
fancy reporter could make a thousand columns of, 
with pictures added on to make a thousand more ; 
but a man does not see much when riding backward 
in an American Minister's carriage, in the hi, hi, hi 
style we were going, with guardsmen and betto. All 
the way, more or less, are planted pleasant tea- 
houses We " tea " here, when we must 

stop by the wayside, and in such little bits of cups 
that I could drink the content of twenty of them 
and then want more. Pretty tea girls stand by the 
entrance, and (their teeth" not yet blackened) with 
ways so pretty, and courtesies so fascinating that tea, 
even without sugar or milk, becomes agreeable. Tea- 



THE CITY OF YEDO. 55 

houses are the grogshops of Japan. Our pretty 
lacquered waiters, the tea girls, hand you little tiny 
cups, with a mouthful in them, and you squat down 
on the nice, clean mats, if squat you can (I have to 
stretch out at length, and fill up half a tea room), 
and you sip, and sip, and sip, this mouthful of hot 
tea, as if the gods' nectar was going down your 
throat in infinitesimal drops of microscopic invisibil- 
ity. Tea, like sleep, is a great invention. There's 
Bass' beer, all the way from London, stuck up in the 
corner of the tea-house shop, for beer-drinking, trav- 
elling Englishmen ; but what's Bass' beer to tea, if 
you only can get enough of it, this hot weather with 
the thermometer over ninety ? A Japan tea-house 
keeper picks out as pretty a place for the tea-house 
as he or she (the keeper) can get. The keeper covets, 
if possible, a view of, and the air of, the Bay of 
Yedo, along which, most of the way here, runs the 
Tocaido. The grand tea-house is cut up into numer- 
ous little rooms, with paper partitions between to 
part them, running on slides, but all removable at 
will, to restore the whole to one grand room. Cakes, 
sweetmeats, and candies are brought in with the tea, 
all put on the clean-matted floor (there are no seats), 
and we all squat or stretch out on that floor. It is 
stifling hot in these tea-houses just now, and a stretch 
out is a great relief to the traveler. 

There is a river (the Logo) half-way up to Yedo, 
which we "pole" over on a flat-boat — horses on one 
boat, and we and the carriage on another. Beggars 



56 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

by the score beset us there. " Give us a Tempo " 
(one cent only), all pray, in the politest tones imagin- 
able, with bows as graceful as if court-trained there- 
for. The lame, the halt, the blind, the idiotic, are 
there, and not only they, but people well enough look- 
ing to work. Beggars in Yedo proper have not yet 
met my eyes. The Government, I am told, particu- 
larly discourages begging there, and sends off the 
beggars that can work to work in the mines. One 
reason, probably, why the Government has put the 
ban on the beggars, I have written of before, is, that 
it wishes to discourage and break up the trade ; but 
how can it be broken up, if even the poverty-stricken 
coolies, with no clothes on, will not work with the 
beggars? These beggars are the seventh class in 
Japan, ranking with actors, as I have written you ; 
but there is a class below even these, the eighth and 
lowest (save one, the prostitutes), viz., the tanners, 
shoemakers, leather workers, skinners, etc. The 
Japs have no mutton (sheep die if they eat the grass 
here), but little beef, and ' that, before Perry came, 
not for food; and there is such a prejudice against 
those whose trade is to take life, or who are con- 
nected therewith, that it thus breaks out even against 
the shoemakers and leather workers. The pre- 
judice, however, is so unnatural and unreasonable, 
that the tanners and their clan are petitioning hard 
to be relieved from the ban, and the Government 
will put them on an equality with other people as 



THE CITY OF YEDO. 57 

soon as the vox pojpuli, that is, Tom, Dick, and 
Harry, will permit. 

But, stop essaying. Get on to Yedo, the great 
city of the now extinct Tycoon — the city said to 
have two million human beings in it. On ! on ! 
But the Gin-rick-a Shas are in the way. What do 
you suppose is a Gin-riclc-a Sha f Most people that 
ride here, ride, first, on Japanese ponies — a vicious, 
wicked little rascal (so say the Yankees here), that 
bites, and kicks, and flares up ; next, they are carried 
in norimons (quality riding this is) by two coolies, in 
a sedan-covered chair; and next, in a cango, also 
carried by two coolies, on a pole over the coolies' 
shoulders — Satan's own invention for crooking up 
and cramping your legs, and making you miserable 
as you ride. Some Yedo genius lately, with no rev- 
erence for the customs of his great ancestors, has in- 
vented a Gin-rick-a Sha, which is a one-horse coolie 
carriage, a covered cart on springs, that one coolie 
can easily pull, and, therefore, infinitely better than 
the norimon, or cango, that two coolies must work. 
Thanks to that Yedo genius, you can go through the 
streets of Yedo now without being hived up in a 
norimon, or crooked and cramped in a cango. The 
progress of the age has got up, and got into Yedo, 
and I have hopes of a country that can invent a Gin- 
rick-a Sha. During the past year, in Yedo alone, 
they have made, numbered, and registered twenty- 
five thousand of these Gin-rick-a Shas, and each one 
pays an annual tax of three dollars. 



58 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

On, on, on to Yedo ! "Well, as fast as possible. 
There's a team of coolies that block the way with a 
stick of timber two feet wide, or more, and twenty or 
thirty feet long, perhaps more. The coolies are 
stuck, but we raised our " hi," " hi," " hi," and the 
stick of timber cleared out for us. Coolies are both 
bullocks and horses here, and cheaper, too, for they 
only eat rice and fish, and not much of these, where- 
as horses and bullocks want ten times as much pro-" 
vender. Now, there, just as I am going on, is a 
drove of hogs in the way. A speculation in hogs is 
going on, just now, among the Japs who have seen 
China. The live hog market has been going up and 
down, just like stocks in the "Wall Street market, 
and hogs here have their "bears" and "bulls," 
just as other stock, or stocks, have them. A sow 
and a litter of pigs, a little while gone by, sold as 
high as one thousand five hundred dollars, but now 
the bears have their way, and they have ruined the 
bulls in hogs. But they don't drive hogs here, on 
the Tocaido, as we do in America. "When hogs are 
recalcitrant, as in America, they do not here turn 
tail where head ought to be, and drive them back- 
ward, but in mercy for the dear hog, they tenderly \ 
put him in a basket, and sling the basket on a pole 
over two coolies' shoulders, and in this way Japs 
drive hogs to the Tedo market, the hogs are cleared, I 
and I am in Yedo ! 

And this is Yedo, and I am in Yedo ; but alas, 
there is no Tycoon. The Tycoon has been tipped j 



THE CITY OF YEDO. 59 

over, and tipped off his throne, since Commodore 
Perry's awful interview with his understrappers, and 
since Townsend Harris's great treaty. Kings,- em- 
perors, czars, kaisers, shahs, and others of the various 
big guns, are something ; but the great Tycoon, and 
the city of the great Tycoon, have been my embodi- 
ments of grandeur and glory ever since I heard of 
Marco Polo, the first great Eastern traveller, and 
read the wonderful narratives of the great Dutch- 
men, from Holland, who made their first lodgment 
here, centuries ago. And there is no Tycoon now ! 
There, are only the tombs of the great Tycoons — the 
"Westminster Abbey of Japan — and that is all I can 
see ! The Mikado has upset the Tycoon ! There 
was a rebellion here, two or three years ago, and the 
spiritual, heaven-born, but hitherto powerless, Mika- 
do turned up king, or emperor, and the poor Ty- 
coon, and the old government of Tycoon, went under. 
They chopped off many heads, hung many up to dry, 
before all this happened ; but the now unwarlike Ty- 
coon, unlike his great ancestors, who robbed power 
from the Mikado by the sword in years gone by, 
gave up, disinclined longer to fight the gods' an- 
ointed, the spirit-born Mikado, and hence, while the 
Mikado lives in Yedo, the Tycoon has gone home to 
his estate in the country, to raise rice, catch fish, 
hunt falcons, or to enjoy other like rural and peace- 
ful sports in his own castle, on the estates born to 
him. The Mikado is not visible to mortals, unless 
they wear straps. The American Minister has 



GO A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

coaxed the Ministry up to letting him be seen by 
soldiers and sailors in straps, and by officials in the 
ambassadorial retinue ; but alas, I have no straps, 
and these eyes of mine will never light upon the 
divine Mikado. • I shall never see him, unless both 
he and I go to heaven together, and then he will be 
so high on the upper seats that mortal-born can 
never get near him. " In heaven there is one sun, 
on earth there is one Mikado," is a Confucian saying, 
in accordance with the idea of the country. But, 
nevertheless, say the middies, who have seen him, he 
is a big, fat boy, only wonderful for being a Mikado. 
Yedo is, say, a fresh-born city in Montana or 
Wyoming, on the Pacific Railroad, say a city of 
pine boards, bamboo, thatched huts, one story high, 
seldom over that, though occasionally with two 
stories on — the upper mounted sometimes by a lad- 
der, and sometimes by steps almost perpendicular, 
kept so clean and well polished as to be almost as 
slippery as ice. But don't misunderstand me. Yedo , 
is at least two thousand years old. The pine boards i 
are beautifully planed by some of the best carpenters j 
in the world. The bamboos are the slide doors with j 
paper windows, and the roofs are prettily thatched, if ! 
not covered, as most of them are, with tiles. The l 
floors are all covered with beautiful mats. The walls 
are often lined with artistic drawings, and paintings, j 
and sketches, that indicate a high degree of refine- 
ment. The windows are of paper ; the outer shutters 
and doors of bamboo. They are lit at night by; 



THE CITY OF YEDO. 61 

tapers of vegetable wax, with paper wicks, to flare 
well when the wind blows. Hence the universal use 
of lanterns to protect them from the winds. There 
is no neatness in the world like that in these wooden 
houses, not even among the Dutch in Amsterdam, or 
Eotterdam, or Schiedam, or any other Dutch dam. 
They shiver all over when foreigners' rough shoes 
tramp on their nice, spotless mats. They never thus 
tread on them, themselves, never ; they always take 
off their shoes and leave them at the door, while we 
ramble and scamper, to their terror, over mats they 
sleep on — soft and nice beds they are, but plague 
on the wooden pillow. "We look, peep, and spy into, 
and feel of, every thing, and they laugh at our curios- 
ity ; while they look, peep, and spy into every thing 
of ours, more especially into our ladies' habiliments. 
Long ringlets astonish them more than their skew- 
ered-up, sticky, waxed hair does us: They peep into 
our carpet-bags, as we peep into their closets, and 
they dance about, and jump, and wriggle before a 
mirror they take out, as we do before their curiosities. 
Hoop-petticoats astound them more than straw shoes 
and naked ankles do us. Every fashion, you thus 
see, that is not our fashion, is funny to us, and vice 
versa. 

And, by the way, shoes are of many, many fash- 
ions here, as well as hats. The horse, the pony, the 
working bullock are straw shod. The working man 
and woman are straw shod. Nor are straw shoes so 
very ridiculous as the word straw would seem to 



62 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

import. A straw-bottomed shoe, fastened over the 
big toe, with, straw straps around the ankle, is not a 
shoe to be laughed at in hot weather. I wish I could 
wear a pair, in lieu of my leather boots, this hot day. 
The straw shoes of the horses and bullocks seem 
stronger — but they are cheap, cost only a cent, 
everywhere to be had ; and when worn out can be 
refurnished. They wear, however, a good while. 
The swell Japs are imitating the foreigners, and put- 
ting iron shoes on their horses ; but the great body 
of the people stick to the straw. There are other 
men and women's shoes, some cost three cents, some 
six ; the high officials wearing blue cloth or silk as a 
cover to the foot, and the shoe of the country 
underneath. There is a very nice shoe made all of 
wood — two-story shoes, I may call them, on two 
props, which go clatter, clatter, clatter, but keep the 
feet nice and clean. All shoes are put off as the 
house is entered, and thus everywhere, are clean mats 
and clean rooms. 

They burnt down three hundred houses last night 
(in honor of our arrival ? I don't write that) — only 
three hundred ! But three hundred houses on fire i3 
not much of a fire for Yedo. The houses do not cost 
much — only one hundred, two hundred, or three 
hundred dollars (this is my guess, only) — and all the 
fittings and furniture can be carried off, with screens, 
and mats, and paper sliding partitions, and pots and 
kettles, by two coolies, as the fire comes along. I 
gin-rick-a slicCd by the ruins this morning, and while 



THE CITY OF YEDO. 63 

in one place the firemen (they have them here) 
were sputtering water from a poor steam-engine 
(they have them too, now, poor ones) in other places 
the workmen were carrying off the ruins, preparatory 
to the erection of new dwellings, which, I am told, 
will all be up in a week. Houses that have to stand 
earthquakes are quickly morticed, not nailed up. 
Nothing is so fastened as not to stand an earthquake 
^hake without toppling down. "When the steam- 
engine and the fire are having a fight to see which 
beats, it is not uncommon, I am told, to see some 
poor believer offering up bits of paper scrolls to the 
god of .fire, as a sacrifice to tempt the wicked demon 
to stop his flame spoutings. 



LETTER VIII. 

LIFE AND SIGHTS IN YEDO. 

Sintoo and Buddhist Temples.— The Priests. — The Sacred Cream-Colored Horses.— 
Theatres in the Temples. — The Opera in Yedo. — Funny Rido thereto in Gin- 
rick-a Shas. « 

Yedo, June 29, 1871. 

Long ago, I started to tell you what my hard 
day's work had been — the hardest of my life — but I 
ran off the track. Now, once more, I will try to get 
on. First, we went early to a Sintoo temple. They 
have two religions only in Japan — none other al- 
lowed (not even ours, the Christian, except to us 
outsiders) — the one, Sintoo, now the court (Mikado) 
religion, up • and the other, the Buddhist (the Ty- 
coon), down, way down, and only propped up by 
Buddhist money at court: We first began " to do " 
the temple of Asaxa, some five or six miles from our 
hotel. Shops, shops, innumerable shops were on our 
way — shops for shoes, shops for clothes of all sorts, 
shops for fish, shops for rice, shops for tea, shops for 
silks and satins — nothing but Hve or six miles of 
shops. Temples and churches look very much alike 
the world over. Images, bells, lights, gold, glitter, 
etc., just the same ; but the novelty here is a Pagoda, 



LIFE AND SIGHTS IN YEDO. 65 

a grand Pagoda. The earthquakes do not tumble it 
over, only because it is built on some scientific 
foundation, in some scientific architecture, so as to 
be made earthquake-proof. The great novelties are 
— if not Barnum's old museum, something like it — 
a labyrinth called in our tongue a theatre, where you 
can go round and round, on a small space, half the 
day, and see life-size images of devils, saints, belles, 
beauties, beaux, dragons, mermaids, etc., "cutting 
up " in all sorts of ways. Bands of music play like 
thunder ; and up hop, and down go, dragon and devil, 
and you see hell and heaven — our names for unknown 
Sintoo-Buddhist things. They expect only a tempo 
(a cent, from a Jap to see these wonders and mon- 
strosities; they expect all they can get from the 
white barbarians,) — and the other great novelty is a 
pair of beautiful, sacred, cream-colored horses, ever 
saddled, if not ever bridled, with spirits invisible on 
their backs, that, every now and then, the priests 
trot about town, to scare off evil spirits from citizens' 
houses, and to purify and bless the air of Yedo. 
"When these horses are trotted out, guards are sent 
ahead to announce their coming, and the Japanese 
are expected to prostrate themselves on the earth 
before them, so as not to see the gods on their backs. 
I would have given at least two tempos, if not more, 
to lay my hands upon the sacred beasts, but the 
spirits on their backs, alas ! forbade any such heathen 
desecration. Asaxa, outside the temple, that is, on 
the temple grounds, is a sort of arcade or bazaar, in 



66 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

which toys, candies, rice-cakes, and all sorts of arcade 
things are sold. It is a place, too, where the people, 
by the thousands, when at leisure, or on holidays, go, 
if not to worship, to have fun, frolic, and a good time 
generally. The tumble-over boys, with their real 
rooster garniture, would entertain us for any length 
of time for a cent or two. The women Japs, by the 
hundreds, with babies slung over their backs, whose 
heads were roasting in the sun (fire-proof heads 
babies must have here, mem, for my note-book), 
flocked around us, and made the air so hot and 
stifling that, precious as woman is, her room here 
was better than her company. Some two-sworded 
fellows looked cross and scowled, but, in the main, 
the curious crowds were sociable, kind, very agree- 
able, though ever curious, especially to see what sort 
of stuff our ladies were made of. 

The next temple we visited — rather, only the ruins 
of a temple — was Owina. When the Mikadoites 
rebelled against the Tycoonites, two or three years 
ago, this Owina temple, a stronghold of the Tycoon, 
was taken by assault. The Tycoon had for years 
kept there a Jap of the pure blood-royal, the sacred 
azul running in his veins, with intent to play him 
off against the real Mikado, if ever this real Mikado 
should become saucy, and attempt to get the better 
of the Tycoon. Owina was the home of this mock 
Mikado; and when the Tycoon thus went down, 
down went Owina in blood and in sorrow. We have 
only ruins, ruins, therefore, to see. Beautiful groves 



LIFE AND SIGHTS IN YEDO. 67 

yet exist, magnificent trees, tea-gardens for the enter- 
tainment of visitors, singing and dancing girls — but 
no priest, no Buddhist, no Sintoo, no any thing but 
ruins, for acres and acres. Here, on the overhanging 
hills, was the only grand, that is, tip-top, re-view we 
had of Yedo. For thousands of acres there is noth- 
ing in sight but the houses, the parks, the castles, the 
streets, the river,. the canals of Yedo. How big is 
Yedo? That is the great question of the day. I 
have tried hard to find out, officially and unofficially, 
but — quien, sabe f "Who knows % The officials won't 
tell, and they do know now, for the census has just 
been taken. Some foreigners say two millions ; some 
one million ; some only eight hundred thousand. If I 
were to guess from the great city, under my (Owina) 
eyes, I should say " the two millions ; " but when I 
look at the vast parks of the Daimios (the nobles), 
with their retainers in the eity, and the parks and 
castle of the awful, almighty Mikado (all the area of 
this city, including thirty-six square miles), I am 
ready to come down to "the one million." This 
difference of opinion arises from the floating character 
of the population. There are eighteen great Daimios, 
nine of whom once had to be in the capital, and they 
brought with them from six thousand to ten thousand 
retainers, each. There are three hundred and forty- 
two lesser-light Daimios, and they all had their 
retainers. Three hundred and forty-two thousand, 
it has been estimated, followers are in the trains of 
these, what the English call princes, dukes, earls, 



68 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

lords, knights, etc. This ebbing and flowing of a 
court city with imperial officials, priests, etc., make 
men differ on the population of Yedo. 

The circumference of this Yedo view or city is 
estimated at twenty-five miles. The temples are 
legion. The god of war, and innumerable other gods, 
big and little, have their temples. Priests are as 
thick as grasshoppers in Utah. The Siro (Djiro), or 
the Imperial castle, covers nearly five miles within 
this circumference. My profane eyes can only get 
up high, and look down. High walls and many 
canals shut out the profane crowd from the pretty 
walks, bowers, flowers, dwarfed-trees and aquatic 
birds, that sing for and regale the lofty Mikado. 
Only ex-Secretary Seward, some middies, lieuten- 
ants, captains, admirals, ministers plenipotentiary, 
and like officials, have ever been blinded by the 
dazzling rays from the imperial person, or ever en- 
tered on the mats, or within the saloons of his 
palace or castle. Our great Tycoon was slipped in 
diplomatically, as a dazzling American beam from 
the setting sun. ISTo ladies' eyes — that is, barbar- 
ian ladies' eyes — were ever permitted to be even 
downcast before his celestial splendor. The best I 
can do, then, is to look about and look down here 
from Owina. 

The third temple " done " this day was Sheba (not 
the Queen of), a great Buddhist (Tycoon) temple, 
with a monstrous big bell, twelve feet high, and with 
room for four or more persons inside — an oblong bell, 



'life and sights in yedo. 69 

all of one diameter, the clapper of which, outside, is 
a great big wooden log, some fifteen feet long, which 
rough machinery pounds the bell with. The priests 
would not pound it for us, for love or money, in fear 
of frightening the town. Bell-metal, by the way, is 
much better and sweeter-toned here in Japan than in 
the United States. Tell Meneely and all his bell- 
men of that, and advise them to come here and learn 
how to make church-bells (not the clappers). Sheba 
looks so like a Catholic temple, a beautiful, costly 
one, that I could easily fancy myself in Rome, or Mil- 
an, or Yenice — not exactly in the Roman St. Peter's, 
whose architecture is so superb, or in the Duomo of 
Milan, but in secondary cathedrals, with magnificent 
altar- work. The temple of Sheba is in the shade, just 
now, among the Sintoos, and at the Sintoo court, for 
it is the burial-place of some of the Tycoons, costly 
memorial monuments of whom fill an oblong, com- 
memorating their grandeur. Their Sheba is their 
sanctuary, and hence, in all parts, rich and highly 
ornate, while incense is kept burning — it may be for 
the Tycoons. Beyond one of the temples, in a court, 
is a large bronze monument, entered by two heavy 
bronze gates, all presented by the king or emperor of 
Corea, hundreds of years ago, in honor of the sixth 
Tycoon. 

"Weary of temples and priests, monuments and the 
dead, we now, this same day, looked up the living, 
and visited the Foreign Office. The ladies with us 
had intense curiosity to see the Foreign Office, and 



70 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

the foreign ministers, etc. — for what is seen in the 
street and at the tea-houses is not " style ; " and hence 
their curiosity was great to see the stylish high 
officers of state. It required some negotiations and 
much diplomacy to have ladies admitted to a foreign 
office and to a court; but the American Minister, 
highly esteemed by the Japanese here, and beloved, 
I may say, by all, was gratified in his request to have 
the ladies accompany us. The fact is, ladies are not 
much thought of in Japan. "Woman is of no account, 
except to be useful. If poor, she works the farm, 
whirls the spinning-wheel, keeps the house, makes up 
the clothes (when people wear any), keeps the tea- 
houses, etc. ; and if rich, she embroiders, paints, etc., 
as did the old Greek princesses, Penelope & Co. ; but 
she is, nevertheless, of no account. The greater the 
wonder, therefore,' that this low grade of creatures 
could ever be got into court ! Only two foreign 
ladies ever before had the honor. But ours were ad- 
mitted with us, drank tea and drank champagne, but 
did not smoke ! and what was worse, kept the min- 
isters from smoking, as they are too polite to smoke 
when others do not smoke, especially foreign women, 
whom, as they see us thinking much of, they think 
they must think something of, too, more especially 
when with foreigners. (Mem.— All foreign min- 
isters should smoke ; alas, I don't.) The prime-min- 
ister, Swakara, received us in state .and in style, and 
five others, all in rich silk robes, and Ishibasha, a 
very clever man, who speaks English well, was the 



LIFE AND SIGHTS IN YEDO. 71 

translator. What we all said — no matter. What we 
did only can interest anybody ; bnt that would be 
too long to tell. The reception-room was fitted up 
in European style as to tables and chairs only, but 
every thing else was Japanese — mats (European 
carpets were laid over some of them, that our feet 
should not soil the mats), screens, hanging pic- 
tures, representing Japanese scenes, officials of rank, 
etc., and when once inside, and these screens were 
removed, a view was opened to us of a beautiful 
garden. 

The next visit we made this day (after a drive in 
the park of the foreign ministers' quarter, a choice 
spot allowed the English mission to erect a palace 
upon, and to the gate " where the elephant could not 
go through," the Japanese name of a gate, where an 
elephant presented to the court once got squeezed) — 
was to Hamagoten, a bewitching spot, both near and 
on the sea, where the foreign Japanese ministers en- 
tertain the foreign ministers of Europe. Hamagoten 
is the fishing country residence of the old Tycoon. It 
looks out on the Bay of Yedo, takes in the cool sea 
breezes, and yet has all the charms and witcheries of 
country life — bowers, groves, tea-houses, flowers, 
plants, great trees and little dwarfed trees, artificial 
shrubbery that makes you . laugh to look at its fan- 
tasies, lakes, gold fishes, etc. The Japanese grandees 
well know how to«enjoy country life. They are lords 
of creation here. Duke, lord, nor knight, nor banker, 
in England, does not surpass, if equal, a right royal 



72 A SEVEN MONTHS' KUN. 

Daimio in country sports and luxuries. But more, 
by-and-by, of Hamagoten. 

"Would you not think the doings of this day in 
Yedo were enough for a traveller ? But we had the 
night before us, and if all Yedo was not startled by 
our doings, it was because all Yedo did not see us. 
A young American from New York, now in Yedo 
instructing Japanese in English and French, told us of 
a tea-house where was, in some sort, the Yedo opera, 
and where music was "done," and dancing was 
done, and the ballet corps, if not numerous, was 
striking and strange. Travellers must see all sights, 
you know. It would not do to go to Yedo without 
patronizing music and dancing, etc. "We engaged 
six gin-riclc-a shas. "What sort of a sha this gin is, 
look back and see. Our party was six — six only, 
except the coolies that pulled the gins — and our out- 
riders on horseback were six in number. The coolies 
had mantles on when they started — that is all I need 
say of them now, for the weather was hot ; and pull- 
ing a man' or woman in a gin-riclc-a sha is a perspir- 
ing action in hot weather. The coolies ran and 
raced, and the horses' feet clattered over the streets 
and stones of Yedo, and the swords of the guards- 
men (Yakonins) rattled as the horses galloped to 
keep up with the " gin " and the coolies. "We made 
a grand procession through many of the important 
streets of Yedo. Each coolie carried a lantern, and 
each horseman, too, though the moon was shining 
bright. Such a procession seldom, if ever before, 



LIFE AND SIGHTS IN YEDO. 73 

waked up the Yedoites. Crowds collected to stare 
at us. Jap yelp upon yelp here announced our com- 
ing. John Gilpin's ride could not have equalled 
ours in the curiosity excited, though we fared far bet- 
ter than poor John. 

The opera-house we visited, if I may dignify the 
tea-house we halted at with that high-sounding name, 
was not quite equal to the La Scala of Milan, or the 
Academy of Music. JSTo boxes, no pit, no stage, only 
a mat floor, second story, in a low-roofed room. The 
orchestra or music— what shall I say of it % — was in 
the shape of. six or seven guitar-looking things, with 
some strings on them, not pulled by the fingers, but 
hit by a piece of board. The ballet corps did double 
duty — acted, as well as chanted, pantomimed and 
danced. A ]STew York opera-house critic could turn 
out, in the morning journal, a column of mysterious 
criticism upon the music and ballet I heard and saw, 
but I have no genius in that line, and so must stop. 
All I can say is, I stretched out on the mat and went 
to sleep, worn out with the day's doings — while 
others chow-cJiowed (ate) cakes and candies, sipped 
saki (Japanese whiskey), tea, and Bass' English beer. 
Happy was I to gm-rick-a sha it home, and sleep, 
sleep, as man never before slept, until he takes the 
sleep forever. 

All now that can interest you of this hard day's 
work is the opera bill-^thus made out on Japanese 
tea-paper, two feet long, which, being translated, 
reads thus • 



74 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

Tokei, 5 month, 13 day {June 29), 1871. 
Six gin-rick-a shas (carriage 

riding for six) 6 boos $1 50 

Singing girls 1 rio and 3 boos 1 75 

Dancing girls 3 rio and 1 boo 3 25 

Beer 1 boo 25 

Fish (for coolies) and said. . . 2 rio ■and 1 boo 2 25 

$9 00 

All the cost for six United States Yankees, six 
Yakonins (guards), and six coolies, including the 
horses and carriage riding. 

Something cheaper, you see, than the grand opera 
of Paris, London, and JSTew York, to say nothing of 
the fish for the coolies and the Yakonins ! 

If I can ever get time to go to a theatre, I will 
send you a theatre bill of fare ; but Jap plays, like 
Chinese plays, are eternal, often beginning in the 
morning and running through a week or two. 



LETTEE IX. 

LIFE AND SIGHTS IN YE DO. 

Eyes only Useful Here.— Tongue and Ears Useless.— Shopping in Tedo.— Hotels in 
Japan.— Grand Hotel in Tedo.— Breakfast with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs 
at Hamagoten. — Dinner at a Beautiful Country-Seat. — Discussions, Political and 
Theological.— Why the Japanese don't like Christians.— The Schools of Japan.— 
Beading, Writing, and Arithmetic almost Universal. 

Yedo, June 30, 1871. 

"What a miserable life it is to be in a country 
where you can understand nothing through your 
ears, except the yelling and mewing of cats, the 
barking of dogs, and the crying of babies, strapped on 
their mothers' or little sisters' backs! Even dogs 
bark, not in English, but in a Japanese way. The 
baby-crying is the only real familiar sound to greet 
my ears. The cocks have a new way of crowing, 
and the hens of cackling. None of the birds sing as 
our birds sing, if any of them sing at all, though they 
make an infernal noise for birds. There are no 
sheep to bleat and make you happy, and the cows, 
if there are any, and the bulls, but very few, are so 
well drilled they never low or roar. The temple 
bells, even, are not our bells. They do not speak 
English, or French, or German, or any other Euro- 
pean language, but utter notes of their own. I 



76 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

should, therefore, have the blues in such a deaf and 
dumb land, if American and English friends had not 
sprung up in all directions, The fish, all, are new 
fish, as well as the birds ; the trees, most of them, 
new trees; the flowers all new, if we had 'not im- 
ported many of them into America. I cannot even 
go a-shopping alone, where there is any thing won- 
derful to buy. I cannot tell what I want ; and 
when I do, I cannot get at the price of it, especially 
in measures and weights, all new to us, and worse, 
by far, than the kilometres and kilogrammes of our 
French and Continental neighbors. If the rascals 
that went to work at that Tower of Babel had had 
any idea of what a confusion in the world they were 
making, do you think they would have tried to build 
it? Here I am in a Tedo street, staring and stared 
at, knowing nothing, and profiting nothing from 
Greek, Latin, or some considerable smattering in sev- 
eral European tongues. I would (perhaps ?) give up all 
my five or six years of Greek and Latin, if I could only 
speak five or six words of Japanese, such as, " What's 
the price of this or that ? " or, u Show me some silks, 
or crapes, or satins, or fans, or lacquer, or copper en- 
graving." Here are thirty-five millions of living 
Japanese, and I have spent years of my life studying 
dead Latin, and deader Greek (I would do it over 
again, though) ; and I can't read the names of the 
streets, or the numbers of the street ! I do not know 
even my letters ! I want to ask a million of questions, 
such as " How. do you weave or spin that ? " or u carve 



LIFE AND SIGHTS IN YEDO. 77 

this % " or, " Why do you stable your horses' heads 
where we put the horses' tails % " " Why do you mount 
your beasts on the wrong side % " " Why don't you use 
wheelbarrows in lieu of bamboo baskets, when dig- 
ging canals in Yedo % " " Why do you saw back- 
ward % " " Why do you plane backward \ " But I 
cannot talk ; I am deaf; I am dumb ; I might as well 
be a horse in Yedo, when alone, as a man in the 
streets all alone ! 

Shopping is the chief business of foreigners in 
Japan, and hence we all go a-shopping. There is a 
Curio Street in both Yokohama and Japan — that is, 
a street of curiosities. The lacquer ware is wonder- 
ful, both dear and cheap — dear, if very old and very 
artistic, and cheap as dirt, if fresh and poorly 
wrought on. The bronzes are astonishing. Where 
did the Japanese pick up their wonderful art 
in this-? Their work in silk and crape, too, is 
wonderful, and very, very cheap for some things. 
Mantillas — if one may so call them — obics, that is, 
curiously- worked sashes to go round the waist, are 
often in the very highest art. A silk man in Yoko- 
hama is imitating European dressing-gowns, and he 
will fit you out in crape work for about &ve dollars, 
so that you would not be known from a peacock. 
Kock crystal is curiously wrought, and very precious 
to the Japanese. I have just been buying a suit of 
armor, once belonging to some stately Daimio, which 
cost him, four or S.ve hundred years ago, if the offi- 
cial certificates do not lie, some five hundred dollars 



78 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

— gold wrought, and embossed, and with terrible-look- 
ing gold dragons ; but the days of armor are over now, 
and coats of mail being worth nothing to the owner 
— what I gave for it — no matter ; but dog cheap, if 
the certificates do not lie. Sixty or seventy tons of 
Japanese curios went out on the last steamer for San 
Francisco, and they will make, if I am not misin- 
formed, all the Yankee sight-seers there stare. I am 
negotiating for temples and pagodas, but the state 
" religion " is not down enough here yet to buy gods 
and. temples cheap. "What a pity they are not as 
cheap as armor ! Oh, if I could only talk, talk, talk, 
how I would shop here in Yedo ! And what is the use 
of the American great " gift of the gab " in such a 
deaf and dumb place as this ? 

I had got it into my head that there were no 
hotels in Japan — nothing but tea-houses and mats 
for foreigners to live in, or sleep on; but I am 
mistaken. There is a European hotel here in Yedo 
— an American hotel, I had better say — run now by 
an American, as big as the old burnt-down Congress 
Hall or United States, of Saratoga — nay, as big as 
the Ocean House, at Newport. The Japanese built 
it, under English inspiration, to meet the wants of 
foreigners expected at Yedo, but they have never 
come, and the hotel has never paid a cent in return 
to the builders. Some five hundred people could be 
crowded into it, but now it has not thirty guests, and 
the most of them boarders in official position, or 
teachers. There is a Yankee captain here, from New 



LIFE AND SIGHTS IN YEDO. 79 

York, who has been running steamships for some 
time, between port and port in Japan, mainly for the 
Japanese Government. We have no consul now at 
Yedo, but a vice-consul acts by ambassadorial ap- 
pointment, and boards at the hotel, with the United 
States flag up over him. The Minister resides in 
Yokohama, and has not a place in Yedo to put his 
head in, save this hotel. And there, is the " Grand 
Hotel" in Yokohama, and the "International Ho- 
tel," and there are lots of other hotels for Tom, Dick, 
and Harry. There will be rest for you, you see, fu- 
ture traveller to Japan, and very, very fair fare, if not 
the best of fare, such as in America. You can have 
chairs to sit on at table, and not be compelled to 
squat on mats, and eat with chop-sticks on the floor. 
Civilization has got here, and is teaching all sorts of 
its novelties to the wonder-stricken Japs, who think we 
are fools to fill up our rooms with tables, and sofas, 
and chairs, and bedsteads. They hang out beautiful 
screens, some of them high works of art, and when 
you open your eyes in the morning, you see, not 
graceless chairs and crooked-legged tables, but works 
of art all over and around you. Away with the 
screens, and lo, presto ! every room in your house, 
on the same floor, is turned into one grand room. I 
have thought this great Yedo hotel might be con- 
verted into a grand watering-place on the Bay of 
Yedo — for it is all alone by itself, wall-surrounded, 
set apart and consecrated to foreign residents only. 
Bathing and boating are here close at hand. Some 



80 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

day hence, it may be, Americans will come- over to 
Yedo as to Long Branch, or Cape May ; for, with 
the exception of the mosquitoes, that we shut off 
with nets, and the fleas, which we can scare off with, 
flea-powder, it is a paradise of a place. The climate in 
summer is very like that of Cape May, or Old Point 
Comfort. The Japs are so impressed by the gran- 
deur of this two-storied hotel, with a tower, that 
shakes well when an earthquake comes along, or a 
typhoon, that they pay twelve and a half cents of 
our money to come in and look at it, and the keeper 
lets out the privilege or monopoly at seventy dollars 
per month. 

I have had two distinguished invitations to go 
out in Yedo, both from Japanese — one to breakfast, 
the other to dine — and I accepted them with pleas- 
ure, without knowing, though somewhat fearing, the 
strange things I might have to eat. (At the Chinese 
meals, it is (not Japanese) where one may have rats, 
cats, or dogs, and birds' nests, as well as fish and rice.) 
The service, I am sorry to say, both at the breakfast 
and dinner, was European. We all sat upright, all 
ate with knives and forks, all drank European wines, 
as well as tea, with no saki ; all smoked, though 
with pipes of very different organizations. 

The breakfast was given to the American Minis- 
ter and myself by the Prime-Minister of the Board 
of Foreign Affairs, and was in the beautiful garden 
of Hamagoten. Invited at eleven a. m., we break- 
fasted till four r. m. ! One poor, hard-working fellow, 



LIFE AND SIGHTS IN YEDO. 81 

the very clever interpreter, Ishibashi, did all the 
talking for us (double-talked), and we gave him no 
time for eating, only for talk, talk, talk. Five hours 
of talk, only think of it, for an interpreter ! The 
talk was about almost every thing on the earth, over 
the earth, and under the earth, more particularly, 
though, on affairs of government, and the science 
of government, in which these Japanese gentleman 
seem to be deeply interested. Their conversation 
exhibited skill, learning, and ability, and showed 
they had been well educated, not only in their own 
books, but were pretty well acquainted with Ameri- 
can and European affairs. They puzzled much over 
the fact that the American Minister and myself were 
friends though far apart in politics. They fight and 
kill in party politics, while we only vote. They 
could not well understand why Nevada, his State, 
should have as much Influence in Congress (the Sen- 
ate) as mine, Sew York (nor can I). They could not 
understand our tariffs, nor can I. Their history 
they hold to be good for two thousand two hundred 
years, and pretty accurate for two thousand ^yq 
hundred years. They have records they rely on so 
far back. Their letters, they own, they get from 
China, and the classics of Confucius and Mencius are 
their classics. They think they are Mongolian, not 
of Chinese origin, and probably they came down 
from Corea. The costumes of these gentlemen were 
robes of a peculiar silk, one of them white (flowered), 

with Turkish trowsers and sandals. The chief had 

5 



82 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

on an extraordinary hat, the tissue of which I cannot 
describe — a hat uplifted like a tower, and only to 
cover the queue. This hat was put on in deference 
to the guests, whereas we take off hats in deference ; 
and when the hat wearied him from its weight he 
begged permission to take it off, and we cheerfully 
relieved him from the burden, of course. The ser- 
vants waited upon us in the most deferential silence. 
!Not a look or emotion ever escaped them. From 
behind screens they peeped in to imagine our wants, 
and instantly heeded them. A small boy did the 
table-bell business, and when any thing extra was 
needed, the doy-dell ran in, and on hands and knees 
tumbled on the floor, to hear the whisper of the high 
personage commanding him. 

The dinner was given us with our ladies, though 
ladies seem of no account in Japan, woman's rights 
never having reached here; but our Japanese host 
had been in America, spoke English, and knew 
American habits well. We went to the place of the 
dinner — a magnificent country-seat, though in the 
city, by the water's edge — in a Japanese pleasure 
boat, sculled, not rowed, by Japs, and the seats were 
pretty mats, and the sides of our cabins were paper 
slides with pictures upon them. On, on, on, we were 
" sculled," on the Bay of Yedo not far from its port, 
and up a river, under many bridges and through 
canals — how far I do not know, only regretting, so 
much of novelty was to be seen by the way, that the 
distance was not longer. Junks, heavily laden with 



LIFE AND SIGHTS IN TEDO. 83 

the produce of the country, were passed ; fishermen's 
nets were glided over ; manufactories were seen, etc. 
Yedo seen by land I have tried to sketch, but this 
was Yedo by water. Our Japanese entertainers were 
very gallant to our ladies. Two of them spoke 
English, were well educated in New Brunswick, 
1ST. J., and in JSTew England. They showed us 
all over the delightful pleasure-grounds. We sailed 
on little artificial lakes in pleasure-boats. "We saw 
for the first time the tea-plant growing. We had 
explained to us the wonderful process of grafting 
and dwarfing trees by which gate-ways are made of 
them, and how they are turned into junks, castles, 
temples, beasts, lions, dragons — any thing you want. 
Some of them, years old, were scarcely a foot high, 
and yet perfect as trees, otherwise, in all their trunks, 
branches or limbs, and leaves. The flowers, too, are 
thus dwarfed — many of them not an inch high, in 
flower-pots, but perfect as flowers. I know nothing 
of botany or horticulture, or I would expand on this 
wonderful art. It fills me with amazement, for I do 
not recollect of ever reading of the like before my 
coming here. The summer-houses (tea-houses) were 
numerous in this place. The walks were shady and 
pretty. Little fountains gurgle out their tiny wa- 
ters. We Americans, that build up hundred-thou- 
sand dollar country seats, think we know something ; 
but in this line we are behind the age. Such a 
" seat " as I am dining in would cost, near New York, 
half a million of dollars. 



84 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

As we were dining — and we had European luxu- 
ries in European style — the Japanese women would 
peep round the screens to peep at our ladies. Curi- 
osity is the same with the sex the world over. We 
discussed many things ; theology not a little. The 
Japs have an idea like ours of the creation of the 
human race, but as I understood our table expounder 
of Japanese theology, they believe woman (our Eve) 
was made before our man (Adam). This exposition 
delighted our ladies, and I send it especially to glad- 
den the hearts of Mrs. Stanton and others. It is hard 
to put up, even at a Pagan's hospitable table, with 
Pagan gods, and goddesses, and spirits, and to be 
compelled to listen to the divinity of them (ugly- 
looking blocks and images as they are), but it is 
harder yet to hear our Old Testament and New 
Testament all overthrown, and to be told Christ, like 
Mahomet, Confucius and Mencius, or Brigham 
Young, was only a very clever man — as good and as 
wise as Confucius, perhaps, but no wiser nor better. 
I asked, "Why they fought Christianity so in 
Japan?" "Because," they replied, "it interferes 
with the Government." "Its ministers are often 
impertinent." " They interfere with what they have 
no concern." " The Poman Catholics, you know, 
once were allowed full swing here ; had missions and 
followers everywhere; and they turned into politi- 
cians, such politicians that we had to clear out the 
whole of them." Nevertheless, the medical mission- 
aries are well received in Japan. One of them, Dr. 



LIFE AND SIGHTS IN YEDO. 85 

Hepburne, is dearly beloved by them, and has made an 
Anglo-Jap dictionary, the only one, and which all, 
more or less, are studying. 

I have had long talks, here and elsewhere, on the 
schools of Japan— on reading and writing, arithmetic, 
etc. The Japanese tell me not everybody reads and 
writes, but almost everybody, more or less. Every- 
body keeps accounts, or seems to — not reckoning as 
we do with Arabic figures, but on boxes with pegs 
for our numbers. The dialects of the thirty-five 
millions of people in Japan are numerous, and as 
puzzling, even to the natives, as are the dialects of 
Yorkshire and Lancashire in England, or the "Welsh 
or the Celtic to the English. The Court has one 
tongue, the coolies another, and the provinces all 
have their dialects. "Education," however, as we 
call it, is pretty well diffused in Japan — that is, read- 
ing, writing, and arithmetic, or the three " R's," as 
some call it. But is reading, writing, and arith- 
metic " education % " I do not think it is. Are 
common schools that teach only the " H's " good for 
much ? Certainly not in Japan, as I see things here 
(if in America). The three " E's " are only tools to 
work with, and if that is all a man knows, his tools 
are more likely to be used by others against than for 
him. Here all, more or less, are the creatures, in- 
struments, tools of the Princes, the Daimios, the 
nobility, the two-sworded men, who ride rough-shod 
over the many, and keep them poor while they hold 
all the wealth. Some one and a half millions thus 



86 A SEVEN MONTHS' KUN. 

quarter upon the other thirty-three and a half mil- 
lions, though all, or nearly all, can read, write, and 
cipher as well as we do in the United States. 

Our dinner over, we glided back in our luxurious 
gondola — shall I call it? — to the Hotel of Yedo. 
Our party spent the evening on the cool waters of 
the bay among the fishermen, listening to their 
" yeow," " yeow," or singing, or chanting, or study- 
ing the stars to see if the same luminaries were over 
our heads as over our dear, dear friends now tinder 
our feet at home. It relieves one of one's homesick- 
ness to see the same bright lights over one's head 
that one sees at home, and thus to feel in this deaf 
and dumb life here, the world is the same for- Jap., 
and John, and Jerry, no matter where born. 



LETTEE X. 

TRAVELLERS LIFE IN TEE INTERIOR. 

The Great God of Kamakura.— " Statue of Dai-bootz.' 1 — Life in Japanese Tea-Houses. 
— Bide in a Cango Bamboo Basket. — The Temples around Kamakura. — Beautiful 
Scenery. — Fields cultivated like Gardens. — The life and Bank of Japanese 
Farmers. — Visit to the Cave of Inosima. — Fish Life and Fish Dinners. — The 
"Mikado" and the "Tocaido." — Politeness and Amiability of the Japanese 
Farmers. 

Fujisawa, July 3, 1871. 

Happy times we are having in a tea-house tavern 
— hotel we should call it — but there are no beds to 
sleep on, no tables -to eat on, no chairs to sit on ! 
There is a jolly party of us, and we are doing our 
own cooking, with maidens all around to stare at us, 
the mother of them all to admire us, and a whole 
village about to help us. We should not cook if we 
could trust the maidens to cook the fish for us ; but 
there is no foretelling what they might put into the 
fish for sauce, and the copper sauce-pans they fry fish 
in, and the matters they fry it with, are thought to 
be rather suspicious. We brought our own bread 
and butter — both are unknown in Japan as native- 
used articles of food — and with this, and sardines, 
and plenty of excellent fish and tea, we made a first- 
rate dinner. 



88 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

We are on our way to see a great god, if not the 
great god, of Kamakura (once a great city, a capital, 
but now all run down), and the great god is " Dai- 
lootz" or " Great Buddha " — but we tarry in this tea- 
house over-night. I do not think much of sleeping 
on mats all night. They are full of fleas, big ones, 
and they bite, too. They are full of mosquitoes, but 
we don't care for them, if our net bars are strong 
enough to stand their twisting and wriggling to break 
in, but they are not. " Buzz," " buzz," " whizz," 
"whizz." You know all about that, even in New 
York city, and all over Jersey. Then we had Japan 
guitar music nearly all night, from the damsels 
below, which is no better than mosquito music, I 
being judge. Then we had cat music. The cats 
of Japan seem tome to have extraordinary lung 
strength, and when they utter their love notes, and 
purr, and squall here, they make the welkin ring. 
One of our man party jumped about all night, flea- 
bitten ; the ladies averred they had not closed their 
eyes, but who believed them ? As for myself, I am 
flea-proof, mosquito-bomb-proof. I snored, they say 
— the only sign I was not sleeping well, just as well 
as usual. You would not understand Japan-travel- 
ling if I did not enter into all these rninutiw, and 
therefore you must excuse the personality. 

We had a whole floor to ourselves, and on that 
floor perhaps a dozen rooms — all one, though, when 
the paper screens were removed. Such tenements as 
these, you see, are not very favorable for private life, 



TRAVELLER'S LIFE IN THE INTERIOR. 89 

or secrecy, or domesticity. One cannot whisper at 
night without being heard all over the domicil. A 
husband can not scold a wife, or, a wife " Caudle " 
a husband, without everybody's hearing. Flirting is 
impossible, and courting would be, if courting were 
ever heard of in Japan. "Wives are not won by 
courting here, but put in the market by father and 
mother to the best or most fitting bidder. They 
know little or nothing of their future husbands till 
their teeth are to be blackened and their eyebrows 
shaved for matrimony. "When we breakfasted, all 
Fujisawa, having heard of the event, ran to our 
doors, or gathered around us, to see us eat on our 
improvised table, with Jap wooden sleeping-pillows 
adopted for chairs; and if one thing more than 
another seemed to astound them, it must have been 
the enormous quantity of tea we drank. 

But to the great god, Dai-hootz, and his holy 
temple! We fitted out, to visit him, a retinue you 
would have laughed your eyes out to see — six cangos 
and eighteen coolies as our equipage ! The cango is 
a sort of bamboo basket, and two coolies carry you 
on a pole. Our coolies were in the livery of nature, 
save their straw shoes, cotton cloth girdle, and hand- 
kerchiefs around their heads. We men are heavy 
fellows, some of us over two hundred pounds, a heavy 
load for two coolies to carry in a basket for miles, up 
hill and down hill, over creeks, streams, and through 
ocean surf and sands, and therefore we took a coolie 
extra for every cango. Three or four bettos (boys 



90 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

that run with the horses) were our outriders. The 
hours I spent in that bamboo basket cango will ever 
be deeply dented on my memory. But Yankee 
trained as I was, I was up to it. " Our heels ever 
higher than our heads," is about the first posture we, 
when boys, learn in New England, and heels higher 
than heads in a basket is cango riding here. "We lean 
back on chairs at home, and put our heels on the 
mantel-piece, and this is Japan cango riding. Japs 
do it easily, for they are short fellows, and squat; 
but for our long legs it is hard work, unless brought 
up to it. In these cangos we made our pilgrimage to 
Dai-hootz. "We spied out "the great Buddha" at 
last, prettily situated in a small gravelled court, 
surrounded by a growth of bamboos, camelias, dios- 
pyros, oaks, and conifers, and approached it up a 
flight of steps and stone portal. The Buddhist 
priests were glad to see us. They were sure of extra 
boos (twenty-five-cent paper pieces), and welcomed 
us with smiles, tea, and a lithograph of their idol. 
We went inside of him, after running all around him 
on the outside. His inside is full of gilt Buddhist 
saints, with croziers, glories around the head, etc., etc. 
"We threw tempos (cents) up into his head, to hear 
them rattle. The priests liked it, for we did not pick 
them up, though they were frightened lest the heavy 
copper tempos, falling back, might hit on their shaven 
heads. We skirted on the outside again, the better 
to comprehend this huge mass of bronze, fifty feet 
high, and thirty feet wide at its base, which rests on 



TRAVELLERS LIFE IN THE INTERIOR. 91 

a pile of masonry, six feet high. "We ran again into 
the inside to see how the bronze joints were put 
together, and these joints were almost imperceptible. 
We got up into the old fellow's arms. Six of us 
sat on his thumbs ! "We looked into his face, and 
saw there " the mournful repose," the lips closed, the 
eyes downcast, and the head slightly bent upon the 
breast. Great is Dai-bootz / I don't think much of 
him as a god ; but as mighty work of bronze art, as 
a Colossus, in that way I worship him, as I did the 
Sphynx, near the Egyptian pyramids, and wish I 
had a week to give him, instead of this passing hour. 
At Fujisawa we left the ^great royal highway of 
Japan, and went into the rural roads, where not 
even a gm-ricJc-a sha can go, only a pony, or a coolie- 
carried cango, strapped on a pole. This is my first 
entree into rural Japan life. Hitherto I have been 
in the cities — now I am in the country, and my 
admiration of Japan rises and rises. I thought once, 
when on the JSTile, that the Egyptians, who could 
turn sands into gardens, were the great farmers of 
the world ; but the Egyptians made no such farm- 
ing gardens as these. Proud as I am of the arts, 
sciences, and marvellous doings of my own country, 
I blush when I compare American farming with this ! 
Here, are rice-fields artificially created, luxuriant in 
beauty now, terraced from hill-side, up and down, 
and watered by the hill streams, or not watered, as 
husbandman wills. There, are barley-fields, and 
bean-fields, and fields of all sorts of Japan agricul- 



92 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

tural productions. Forests cap all the hill-tops. It 
is said, the law or customs of Japan forbid a man to 
cut down a tree, unless forthwith he plants another. 
Hence these beautiful tree-clad hills and hill-sides. 
(Our tariff laws in America counsel an American 
lumberman to cut down his trees by making dear all 
lumber from Canada.) Two crops are raised in Japan 
in one year, even on the rice-fields, where the first 
crop is grain. The grain harvest is over in April or 
May. The rains come on in June and July, and 
now the new crops are up, and the whole country is 
one beautiful landscape in green. It is ravishing in 
beauty, and I am happy in looking at it, even with 
my legs up on the roof of my cango. The turnip or 
root crops will come by-and-by. December and 
January are here only the real winter months, while 
in June and July, after the barley harvest is over, it 
is rain, rain, ever gentle rain. 

One reason, perhaps, why Japan has superb farm- 
ing, is that the farmers here rank next to the no- 
bility, only Koongays of the royal blood, or Daimios 
(princes, say), or Haitamotos (lords), above them. 
All merchants, manufacturers, traders, artisans, car- 
penters, etc., give precedence in rank to these lords 
of the soil. The farmers' houses I see about here are 
like Swiss cottages, thatched, generally, with bamboo 
fences around them, but with no fences on their 
fields. The tools they have would not pass muster 
in our land. Their hoe is more like our shovel than 
a hoe, though hung as a hoc on a bamboo handle. 



TRAVELLER'S LIFE IN THE INTERIOR. 93 

Ploughs I have not seen, nor harrows. Man or 
woman seems to be plough and harrow here. The 
flail, the regular old American farmers' flail, is their 
threshing machine. They pound off the husks of the 
rice in a mortar, and man or woman stand on a level, 
and pump up and down, the pounding pestle in the 
mortar. 

But on, on, though I would like to scribble an 
essay on farming, and expand upon the superb Jap- 
anese agriculture. Let me say, before I quit the 
topic, however, that nothing is wasted in Japan. ISTot 
a straw, even, is allowed to run idle. Compost of all 
kinds is cherished as a gold mine. Our city sewers, 
which draw off so much wealth, would break the 
heart of a Jap farmer, seeing so much gold run into 
the sea. In pails and baskets, on men's shoulders, is 
carried for miles the refuse of the great city, off to the 
fields of the farmer. These pails, on coolies shoul- 
ders, do not always sweeten the air, but they make 
bountiful the fields and the crops. 

Our coolie-cangos now transport us from the green 
fields to the ocean-side, and among the surf, rolling up 
on the sandy beach. I am in Newport, or Long Branch, 
or Cape May. The soothing sounds of the unceasing 
billows that lave the feet and naked legs of our cool- 
ies, gladden us, while the spray, now and then, dash- 
es up a little into our bamboo baskets, sprinkling our 
heads, perhaps, but never reaching as high as our 
heels. We are going to Inosima, where is an island 
cave. "We are "dumped" from our'cangos into a 



94: A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

tea-house, and while dinner is preparing we propose 
to explore the cave. "We go over a hill of temples, 
or go around the hill by water. We enter the cave 
two hundred feet or more — an earthquake-made cave, 
doubtless, for this I infer from the way the rocks are 
pitched together ; and near the end, unless we choose 
to crawl and go further, is a Sintoo temple, with Sin- 
too priests to watch over the holy shrines, near which 
waters from above are trickling. "We pay the priest, 
of course, to help to keep up his paper candles and 
wicks of oil. "We look at the devil he has got chained 
in there, and we drink from the holy spring, one 
draught of which is to save us from sickness, from 
plague, or cholera, or typhoid. I took three draughts, 
in order to be sure, for I need them all in the long 
journey I am contemplating. 

The tea-house dinner of Inosima was nothing re- 
markable. "We borrowed some boards to make a 
dinner-table of, and we squat again on seats, the Jap- 
anese use for sleeping-pillows. Fish, fish, fish, make 
all the meals here — shell-fish, crab-fish, sun-fish, 
devil-fish, the funniest sort of fish and crabs I ever 
saw, the like of which we have nowhere in Amer- 
ica. But I did find an old acquaintance in a clam, 
an eel, and in a mackerel, and in a clawy-looking 
creature, something like a lobster. The whole air 
here is fishy. There is no sort of an ocean or river- 
creature that the Japs do not eat, even sharks ; and 
the uglier the creature is, the more appetizing. Fish 
markets in Japan are curiosities, from the oddities, 



TRAVELLER'S LIFE IN THE INTERIOR. 95 

eccentricities, frights of things you see for sale there. 
And most of the fish sold are not dead fish, but living, 
jumping, wriggling fish. You buy an eel all squirm- 
ing. The fish-market men bring their fish to market 
in water-tubs, and the fishermen keep a huge bamboo 
water fish-tank on each side of the junks, into which 
they throw the creatures that they haul up, or in. So 
much is thought of the fish here, that, on a certain 
festival day, every family that has had a boy born 
(not a girl) during the year, hangs out a great 
painted fish to boast of it. If I knew any thing of 
ichthyology, I would be more particular in my de- 
scription of the fish ; but I am ignorant all along, 
you see. I am not only deaf and dumb here, but 
a " Know-nothing " in most of the ologies and ites a 
traveller ought to know — from ichthyology to ento- 
mology, and on, and on. 

The tea-house fish dinner over, we return to Fuji- 
sawa by another and shorter route. Our gallant 
coolies clambered up the hill-sides, and brought down 
the most beautiful Japanese lilies to decorate the 
cangos of our ladies, so that they, in these, their 
bamboo baskets, look like travelling flower-gardens. 
The flora on these hill-sides were exquisitely beauti- 
ful. Thus adorned, we jogged on in our cangos ; and 
as we reapproached Fujisawa, the coolies broke into 
a trot ; and didn't they toss us up and down on their 
shoulders, as they thus hastened into the village, amid 
the greetings of their friends and neighbors ? 

I ought, I suppose, to dwell upon the ruins of 



96 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

Kamakura, an old and once grand Tycoon city, and 
now a desolation; but the living things are more 
than I can write of, and silence must reign, there- 
fore, over the dead. All the valley was once full of 
shrines and temples. In one of the old temples is a 
celebrated stone, supposed to possess the property of 
curing barrenness among women, and which, there- 
fore, the Japanese women frequent from all parts of 
the country. Kamakura is the Babylon and Nineveh 
of Japan. Every hill, every stream, every valley has 
a story, but what care you for them ? (3fem., it is a 
glorious place for a novel writer to make Japanese 
romances of for the American or British market.) 
The yet brilliant, the really living and beautiful 
temple of Fujisawa we could not resist the temptation 
to visit. The Mikado stops there when he travels. 
We saw the room (of screens and mats) where the 
Mrs. " Mikado " stopped one night, when journeying 
here, and we tumbled down on the mats where she 
slept, in order, if possible, to be inspired with some 
of the reflected glory. The Buddhist priests here 
changed their religion to Sintoo (just like the poli- 
ticians), as the great Buddha went down a little with 
the Tycoon, but they now come np with the Mikado. 
The polite priests gave us tea (we gave them itzibus). 
They showed us a kitchen where two thousand of the 
Mikado's followers were once entertained. By the 
way, when this awful Majesty travels on the Tocaido 
road, there is the greatest commotion. Every tea- 
house, dwelling-house, house or shop of any kind, is 



TRAVELLER'S LIFE IN THE INTERIOR. 97 

boarded up, so that no carnal eye shall look npon 
and be blinded by the splendor of his dazzling glory. 
Every human and beastly thing is put out of the 
way. The Tocaido is devoted to him and his retinue 
only, and that retinue are all the while squatting on 
their haunches, or tumbling on their knees and faces, 
as they come within the charming power of the con- 
secrated Majesty. 

All this, of which I have been writing here, we 
" did " in a day and a half only from Yokohama ; 
but we worked hard, and, on the Tocaido, drove hard 
our horses, returning not in very early evening to 
Yokohama. All along the road the women, more or 
less, the men a little, the children for the fun of it, 
universally cried out, as our carriages were passing, 
" Ohio ! " " Ohio ! " " Ohio ! "—that is, " good-morn- 
ing," or, " how do you do ? " or, " anaka ! " " an- 
aka ! " meaning " Mr.," or " you ; " and then, as we 
left them, "Sia-na-ra, "sia-na-ra," "good-bye," in 
the sweetest of tones. We had no police, no guards ! 
The people seemed so amiable that we could hardly 
persuade ourselves that two British officers were 
killed near that route, not long ago. "We never felt 
the least apprehension. The people seem too kind 
ever to trouble any one. 



LETTER XL 

RETURN TO YEDO. 

In Tedo a Second Time. — Now under a British Esoort.— The English Dragoons 
and Japanese Takonins. — The British Student Interpreters. — Only a Hundred 
Caucasians among a Million of Japs. — Paper Windows. — Uneasy Sleeping. — 
Two-Sworded Loafers.— A Thousand British Troops in Yokohama. — Cheap 
Shopping in Tedo.— Fashionable Biding. 

Yedo, July 10, 1871. 

In Yedo again ! Could not help it ! Irresistibly 
fascinated here by sights, shops, scenes, etc. ! Japan, 
after all, is the country to stay in, as well as to travel 
over ; and so I am once more in the capital, as the 
best place to see men and things. I came up this 
time, not by the Tocaido road, but by the steamer, 
under the British flag, which is doing the Japanese 
coasting-trade, as we do it from Yokohama to Naga- 
saki, by the U. S. Pacific line of steamers, which 
weekly run that way to Shanghai. 

The British charge, Mr. Adams, acting as minister 
in the absence of Sir Henry Parkes (who has just 
gone home to England via San Francisco), and who, 
during our civil war, was in "Washington, attached 
to the British legation, and hence knows every thing 
about us, and kindly remembers almost everybody, 



RETURN TO YEDO. 99 

was polite enough to ask us to pass some time at the 
British legation in Yedo. To show the style in which 
Great Britain keeps up her establishments in the East, 
let me add here, a British mounted guardsman await- 
ed us at the steamboat — a British mounted guard also 
escorting Mr. Adams, next received us — and then we 
left for the palace of the British legation, which was 
a former Daimio's residence, with a large escort of 
mounted Japanese Yakonins, who made their swords 
rattle furiously as we drove like Jehus three miles 
through the narrow streets of Yedo. . A horse-boy on 
foot (the betto) cleared the streets for us, and Yedo 
looked on, as it ever looks, with astonishment, at the 
mounted stalwart English sworded men, with good 
revolvers, and at the British official, thus escorted, 
with his two Americans, in a carriage. 

Life in Yedo, for Americans or Europeans, must 
be hard. There are not a hundred of them, in all, in 
this great city — and only two or three European, or 
American women. The British government has at- 
tached to its embassy here five or six young educated 
Englishmen, who are studying Japanese with all their 
might and main, and making good progress, too. The 
advantage of this to the British government is immense 
— for it enables the embassy to understand the people. 
Mr. Satow, the interpreter, is a very clever English- 
man, a scholar, more or less, in many languages and 
literature, and speaks Japanese with fluency and ease. 
Hence he is the prop of the whole embassy. I have 
learned more correctly from him of the interior ad- 



100 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

ministration of the Japanese government and society, 
than I have been able to learn elsewhere. I should 
have written you, if I had written on the topic at all, 
that the Japanese have no newspapers ; but I learn 
from him now, that each department has its gazette 
or bulletin, publishing edicts, regulations, and parts 
of its correspondence with foreign ministers, who, 
mercilessly, are vexing the Japanese government on 
" claims " — for, there being no civil courts in Japan, 
all American and British mercantile claims, or suits, 
are foisted upon the Yedo government, through the 
foreign embassies here. Mr. De Long, the American 
Minister, has a dozen such cases on hand ; tbe British 
embassy, of course, many more, as the British have 
so much more commerce here than the Americans. 

Sleeping in a city of a million of Japs, thousands 
of them low fellows, entrusted with two swords, who 
know how to use them, like lightning, too, and who 
are so keen with them, that, only three years ago, 
two crazy fellows attacked a whole British retinue, 
cut at, or rather cut up, nine Englishmen and two 
horses, before they were brought down — sleeping, I 
say, with paper windows and doors only (on the 
ground floor), that any body can open at night, is not 
as safe as sleeping in the eighth or tenth story of a 
New York hotel. But, nevertheless, we slept " like 
perfect tops." "What's the use of worrying when you 
go abroad on the earth ? Better stay at home, if your 
mind is not easy on such things, or if your appetites 
care for what you eat or drink. These two-swordcd 



RETURN TO YEDO. 101 

loafers, though, ought to be put down, and must be 
put down. The government is all ready to put them 
down, but is afraid so to do, for the sword is a badge 
of honor here, a title of nobility — and a vagabond 
clings to it more than to life. If he loses his sword, 
or his sword is dishonored, or if, in an insult, his 
sword does not do its duty, the poor devil hari-kari '«?, 
that is, rips up his belly. It is glory to die in Japan 
thus self-ripped up ; but to be hanged, or strangled, 
that is a disgrace everlasting, and entails a bad herit- 
age on the family — whereas to hari-Jcari wipes out 
all spots of ignominy, and makes a martyr of a man. 
The French minister has suggested to the govern- 
ment that, in order not to wound the honor of these 
rascals, when the sword is taken from them, a decora- 
tion be given them, to show their hereditary claim to 
honor, and the suggestion seems likely to be realized 
in a year or two. If I ever come here again, I hope 
to see no more of these two-sworded vagabonds. I 
don't like the looks of their steel, especially when 
saki (rice whiskey) is in the owner of the swords. 

The British government has in Yokohama, just 
now, nearly a thousand British soldiers, with a ship- 
of-war or two, and the French government has a 
large body of marines on shore — while other nations 
have only their flag to protect them. True, the 
British and French have no particular business in 
arms here ; but, nevertheless, they are a sort of pro- 
tective police for Americans and Europeans. It 
seems to me, here in Yedo, more than in Yokohama, 



102 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

that some such protection from arms is necessary, 
where so few Caucasians are mingled among so many 
millions of Mongolians — more especially when so 
many thousands of them carry swords. I had in- 
dulged in the apprehension, from reading Allcock on 
Japan, that there was to be no safety in going any- 
where in Japan without a large armed escort ; but, 
in and about Yokohama, one seems as safe as at home, 
though at Yedo there is not that ease. 

I spent half a day shopping here, and the crowds 
all around stifled me for want of air. . Yokohama has 
the curiosities of Japan for sale, the costly things — 
but Yedo only the little funny things of Japan, the 
toys, the mock-dragons, the mermaids, etc. Tooth- 
powder costs three cents a box — the very best. Pow- 
der for ladies, two or three cents a paper. Rouge, 
freely used by ladies, for the lips, one cent a box. 
Handkerchiefs about twelve cents. Decorated hair- 
pins, with tassels, two, three, and four cents. The 
prices current of Yedo would amuse you. A gin- 
ricTc-a sha ride costs twenty-five cents for two and a- 
half or three miles. There are ten thousand of these 
things in Yedo, costing from ten to fifteen dollars 
each, and they have become all the fashion within a 
year or two. Other parts of Japan are rapidly fol- 
lowing this good fashion of the capital. But these 
cheap things do not indicate the extravagance of the 
nobility or royalty of Japan. No people are more 
extravagant, when they have the dollars to spend or 
spare. The Japanese robes for the high-born cost as 



RETUJM TO YEDO. 103 

much here as in Paris or New York. For the high 
works of art very large sums are paid, and the decora- 
tions of their one-story palaces are without reference 
to cost. 

But adieu to Yedo — and now a final adieu to this 
curious city. I can not persuade myself it is a 
healthy city, this time of the year ; and on that ac- 
count I shall be glad to be out of it. The air is stifling. 
There have been no breezes since I came here. The 
mosquitoes have the sharpest sort of nippers, and the 
punka is used here, to keep cool during meals, and to 
blow away these creatures. 



LETTER XII. 

THINGS IN JAPAN. 



Women among the Japanese. — Their Position and Condition.— Promiscuous Bath- 
ing-houses. — The Theatre. — Ticketing Straw Shoes therein. — Jap Stump 
Orators.— Bamboo in Japan.— Japanese Art. — Shopping in " Curio " Street. — 
Can spend any Amount of Money. — The Steel of Japan. — The Government of 
Japan a Feudality. — Eailroads, Telegraph, and Mint in Japan. 



Yokohama, July 12, 1871. 

The status or position of women among the Jap- 
anese is more puzzling to a foreigner than any thing 
else, and no one looker-on agrees as to what that posi- 
tion is. The Mikado can have but one wife, but is al- 
lowed, by law or custom, twelve concubines ; Daimios 
and Hattamatos, eight ; men, with other titles, five ; 
officers and the soldiers, two. But, say the laws or- 
dered by Jycyas, " The man is not upright who is 
much given to women." It is an error, they tell me, 
that the Japanese are indifferent to the respectability 
of their wives, and that they often prefer taking one 
from among the public courtesans. But there are 
wonderful exhibitions of woman-life in Yedo and 
Yokohama, such as I cannot describe — exhibitions 
under the sanction of, and controlled by, the Govern- 
ment, and from which the Government derives a 



THINGS IN JAPAN. 105 

large revenue. The laws against dancing women, 
etc., etc., says Jycyas, are not to be administered 
severely, though " they are like caterpillars or locusts 
in the country." " Out of regard for the nature of 
mankind, their offences are to be lightly passed over." 
Hence, this species of vice is made just as public as it 
can be, outwardly, decency, however, ever hovering 
over it. Women are sold in childhood, temporarily, 
for a purpose, and many of them afterward marry 
well without dishonor. But this is a topic upon 
which I cannot enlarge. 

The baths of the great cities are very peculiar 
institutions. Men and women, if they do not exactly 
bathe together, come so near it that the difference is 
not worth talking about. Everybody bathes here, 
and not to be clean is considered disreputable. The 
cost of bathing is cheap in Yedo, about forty cents 
every day for a month. If mere cleanliness is god- 
liness, there are not a more godly people on earth. 
The baths are warm, ever open to the public eye 
from the street, with no disguises about them. They 
are so common that they do not even provoke curi- 
osity. In Yedo there were many starers, staring at 
me, when viewing the bathers, but not one staring 
in. Nothing is thought of this peculiar mode of 
bathing. Nothing mischievous seems to come of it. 
We must not forget that what people are accustomed 
to from their youth up, does not amaze and astonish 
them as we strangers are thus astounded. 

I went to the theatre the other night in Kan- 



106 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

agawa — a big institution with no seats, but with rails 
to lean on. "We all squat. The natives leave their 
penny and two-penny straw shoes at the door, near 
the ticket-box, and take tickets for them, as we take 
tickets for our hats or cloaks. It was a very fanny 
sight to see four or five hundred shoes ticketed with 
wooden straps attached to them, the straps written 
over in Japanese characters. ~No American can 
stand a Japanese theatre over fifteen minutes. It is 
not like the Chinese, all ci bang," " bang," " bang," 
" bang," smash, crash, thrash, but it is, if possible, 
stupider — to us, at least. I sallied out to hear a Jap 
stump orator lecturing, as I suppose Plato and Aris- 
totle did, in front of the theatre. He blew, fanned, 
roared, and snorted, as do some of our stump orators. 
I was told he was reciting Japanese story-history to 
what seemed to be a very hungry crowd of admirers, 
two or three thousand in number. Scandal whispers 
that the Government employs these orators to uphold 
the Mikado Government against the Tycoon discon- 
tents. Perhaps so; we do the same. The rain 
began to pour down. It rains here in summer with- 
out the least trouble. "We tried to hire a gin-rick-a 
sha to haul us home, but coolies, naked as they are, 
won't work in the rain (for fear of getting wet ?), and 
so we had to foot it home. "When a coolie's paunch 
is full of rice, there is nothing to stimulate him to 
earn more, especially late at night, and when it rains. 
Every country has something peculiar in it that 
every inhabitant makes the most of. Pine wood is 



THINGS IN JAPAN. 107 

an American institution, as the bamboo is a Japan- 
ese institution; and what would the Japanese do 
without the bamboo ? The handles of all agricul- 
tural instruments are made of it. The gutters of 
houses are of bamboo. Paper is made of bamboo. 
Split bamboo makes curtains for houses, and screens, 
all beautiful, too, when colored or painted. There is 
scarcely a human avocation that does not call into 
requisition the bamboo. Paint on houses is unknown 
here. The bamboo garnishes them up a little, but 
there is no paint nor whitewash where I have been 
travelling. Wood is left of the natural color, and 
waxed often to give it polish and beauty. 

"What has really astounded me more, perhaps, 
than any thing here, is art. The little hands and 
arms of the Japanese seem to fit them for nice execu- 
tion ; but they would not make the pretty screens, 
or pictures, or inlay copper, or lacquer as they do, if 
taste did not accompany them: I have just seen a 
big boy, only thirteen years old, who is painting for 
foreigners Japanese costumes, and his execution is 
wonderful. The paper-hangings of Japan are un- 
rivalled. I. have seen nothing in the world, that I 
remember, which equals the famous fan room of the 
Hamagoten in Yedo. We, doubtless, got all our 
ideas of beautifying paper from Japan. The bronze 
work of this people is wonderful, as well as their 
lacquer. They put years of work often into a Dai- 
mio's room. When we of English descent were 
barbarians in art, these people were all they are now. 



108 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

We see bells and bronzes and inlaid work hundreds 
of years old. The iron and steel work of Japan, too, 
is far in advance of many " civilized " nations. The 
famous Damascus steel, the renowned Toledo blade, 
does not surpass, if equal, the steel sword of the 
Japanese officers. It may not bend as the Damascus 
blade, but it has a strength and tenacity beyond it. 
The old armor of the old Japanese knights is won- 
derful work for the age and time. Their work in 
silk and satin is wonderful, and also in crape. These 
people, farming people too, who use only the old 
spinning-wheel and the reel of our grandmothers, 
who have no Lyons or Aubusson looms, turn out real 
works of art in embossed silks and satins. I tell the 
administrators of Government here, if they will only 
send out their artists to study and copy Lyons fash- 
ions, or to imbue themselves with European tastes, 
their silks and satins and crapes will command the 
markets of the world. "What they most want to 
please us now is the knowledge of our caprices and 
fashions and tastes. From their long non-intercourse 
with the world they have not advanced in all that, 
and it is hard to persuade them to do aught save 
what their great-great-grandfathers and mothers were 
brought up to do. The (foreign) Curio Street of 
Yokohama is a gallery of art. I could spend days 
there, if I had time, to study them up. A people 
who have their capacities can be taught to do any 
thing, and the marvel is, when they learned it or 
who taught them. Is not art inborn ? 



THINGS IN JAPAN. 109 

But shopping in Curio Street is an unutterable 
bore. The price asked for any thing is no sign of 
what you can get it for. Two or three shops only, 
it is said, have fixed prices, and hence foreigners 
largely patronize them. Elsewhere you sit and hag- 
gle and bid, and waste hours of precious time. 
About one-half of what is asked may be set down as 
the fair price ; but this being understood the Jap 
shop-keeper triples often on that. Knowing nothing 
of the real value of things or real cost, and but little 
of their merit — as in lacquer ware — there can be the 
greatest deception practised, and hence we hag- 
gle at random — are laughed at by the Japs, and 
laugh at ourselves in concord with them. The cus- 
tom-houses in America will think we are all cheats 
in our invoices, even when they are bona fide — all 
Japanese work being comparatively cheap, from the 
low price of labor. "What is dear at home is very, 
very cheap here. The profits in San Francisco and 
ISTew York, on Japanese curiosities, must be three 
and four hundred per cent., and hence their infre- 
quent sale there. 

The Government, or the form of Government 
which this country has, it is almost impossible for a 
foreigner to understand. The Mikado, or emperor, 
is the head to whom all the real estate of the country 
belongs, and from whom spring all landed titles, such 
as they are. And then there are Koongays, with the 
Mikado blood in their veins ; the Daimios, or Yedo 
nobility; the Hattamato, or the lower class of Dai- 



110 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN. 

mios. These people now make up the Government 
of Japan, which is the old feudal system of Great 
Britain and Europe eight hundred years ago. These 
feudal lords were in frequent collision up to 1600, 
since which time they have had tolerable peace, save 
in the recent rebellion when the Mikado overthrew 
the Tycoon. The Government was a dual Govern- 
ment up to the arrival of Commodore Perry, seven- 
teen years ago, when differences began to arise 
between the Mikado, and Tycoon respecting the ad- 
mission of foreigners. 

The Mikado did not assent at first to the treaties 
of Perry and Townsend Harris, and parties were 
created by these differences of opinion, which led to 
the overthrow of the Tycoon who made the treaties. 
"We have, therefore, now a Mikado Government, 
risen into power on the overthrow of treaties, and 
yet obliged by foreign arms to uphold and maintain 
those treaties. These treaties expire the coming 
year, and there will be much difficulty in renewing 
them. The spectacle of a feudality of the middle 
ages now, in 1871, is a novel and interesting exhibi- 
tion to the American eye. "We are taken back, as it 
were, into Europe eight hundred years ago, and see 
the life our British ancestors led, with their serfs, 
villains, and retainers. But I must not weary you 
by writing a treatise on Government. 

The Japanese are making great advancement in 
certain kinds of our civilization. They have war- 
ships like ours, which it is doubtful if they know how 



THINGS IN JAPAN. HI 

to handle. They have a mint organized like ours, 
but their currency, like ours, is only paper money — 
oblong pieces of pasteboard printed on, in Japanese. 
They have a telegraph from Yokohama to Yedo, 
which I have used two or three times and found as 
reliable as any in the United States. English mes- 
sages are translated and transmitted in Japanese. 
They are also constructing a railroad from Yoko- 
hama to Yedo, some twenty-four miles, which the 
English engineers are making a very, very costly 
work — and this will cost so much that it will frighten 
the Japanese from extending their lines over the 
island as they were contemplating. Next year a 
telegraph from Nagasaki and Yedo to Shanghai will 
connect Japan and China, and enable even Ameri- 
cans, if they will pay for it heavily, to communicate 
with Yedo. The telegraph, by the way, has been 
extended over Russia in Asia to the border custom- 
house of Russia and China, some six or seven hun- 
dred miles only from Pekin, and in a year or two the 
communication will be completed from Pekin, so 
that St. Petersburg and Pekin can interchange ideas. 
This will be a rival to the English lines on the Indian 
seas. 



LETTEE XIII. 

ON TEE JAPAN SEAS. 

Adieu to Yokohama.— The Foreigners and their Life there.— The Ail Sorts of Clothe3 
of the East. — The Japanese Passengers on board the Costa Eica. — A Japanese 
Prince and his Retinue on board.— A Typhoon dodged. — Frightful Loss of Life and 
Property. — An Earthquake felt.— Curiosity satisfied. — Motley Cargo of the 
Costa Eica. — Butcher's Meat called FowL 

Japan Seas, July 13, ) 

On Board Steamer Costa Eica. (Under United States Flag.) ) 

Adieu to Yokohama, and all its agreeable Ameri- 
can population. We have been welcomed not only 
as countrymen, but as friends, almost as relatives. 
A New Yorker cannot but be at home here ; for the 
town abounds with New Yorkers. I see the " Brook- 
lyn Hotel," the " New York Hotel," too, and I eat 
meat from the " Fulton Market." The flag; of the 
United States on the Pacific mail steamers dots the 
harbor. There are only about one thousand Caucasi- 
ans in Yokohama (exclusive of the military), with a 
Mongolian population, including Kanagawans, of 
some sixty or seventy thousand, and all the while 
rapidly increasing. There are ~^ve or six little daily 
journals in Yokohama, rich in advertisements, but 
poor enough in news. One of these was sold the 
other day, I see, for twenty thousand dollars. As to 
news here, foreign news, there is not enough to keep 



ON THE JAPAN SEAS. 113 

a journalist alive. The wonder is that all do not die 
of ennui. The writers, of course, know nothing of 
Japanese, can therefore gather up no police reports, 
have no thrilling intelligence — no court records, 
nothing of etiquette in Yedo — nothing from the 
Provincial Princes. All we have is the editorial 
essay, and the everlasting, but all-important, prices 
current of rice, silks, sheetings, shirtings, freights, 
rates of exchange. But these are what men come to 
Japan for (to get rich, and then go home), and hence 
nothing is so important to them. The Caucasians 
live beautifully here, many of them near their places 
of business, right on the open Bay, and others, on the 
bluffs above ; and five thousand dollars here in the 
way of living goes farther than twenty thousand dol- 
lars in New York City. They shut up shop at four ; 
drive or ride till seven, and at seven and a half sit 
down to dinner, their evening amusement, after 
which, and a long sitting at dinner, they go to bed. 
Dinner is the great event of the day. Tiffin at one 
o'clock, as they call " lunch," the intermediate event 
— and therefore, the most is made of dinner. No 
theatres, no opera for Europeans, no libraries, no- 
where to spend their evenings, they frantically dine, 
and unhealthily sleep after such dinners, with Chi- 
nese almost always for their cooks. The Chinese 
take to all trades, and Chinese make the best house- 
servants here — the Japanese not well taking to that 
sort of thing, save as nurses for children. 

One of the curiosities of the East is the all sorts 



114 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

of clothes everybody (of the male sex) wears. I am 
not writing now of the nature-clad Japanese ; but 
they often get cast-off European clothes, which, when 
put on, amuse one to see. There's, a droll fellow, 
with nothing on but old trowsers and straw shoes ! 
There, is another, with red European-made shoes, yel- 
low frock-coat, Calcutta hat (a hat branching all over 
the head, forward and backward only though, and 
stuffed so thick with light stuff, that no sun's rays 
can pierce through it), spectacles on, too, and look- 
ing as wise as if some great philosopher. There, is 
another yet, with a frock-coat only, no shirt, no 
trowsers, no hat, no, nothing else ! "When European 
fashions are taken by the Japanese, they rush into 
them, as do the Central American negroes, or the 
North American Indians. But the hats of the Euro- 
peans in this country are of the oddest, drollest, most 
variegated kind you can well imagine. I bring here 
my American head cover, a poor concern, under a 
Japanese sun, or in a Japanese rain. I cover it all 
over with white linen, and a long veil down the neck, 
to shed off the hot sun rays. Another sports a big Cal- 
cutta, English-invented hat, made in imitation of the 
Turk's sash, wrapped round his head or cap (fez) on 
a hot day, also to ward off the sun's rays. Another 
yet, fresh come, to look jaunty, sports his American 
straw hat. In short, we have all sorts of hats human 
ingenuity has invented, and hence, we look like so 
many birds of passage, if not of prey. 

But, once more, adieu to Yokohama. I am on 



ON THE JAPAN SEAS. 115 

board the United States mail steamer Costa Kica, 
running between Yokohama and Shanghai (China), 
and touching at the Japanese ports of Hiogo and 
Nagasaki. The ocean is as quiet as an inner lake. 
This is the rainy season, and bless the rainy season, 
for the clouds, ever overhanging, keep off the hot 
rays of the sun. We Americans ought to be pro- 
foundly grateful to the Pacific Mail Steamship Com- 
pany, for this weekly line of steamers to Shanghai, 
for it spreads the American name, and shows the 
American flag far and wide in these seas. It alone 
offsets, if not equals, British power and British fame 
here. We have a Prince on board, a real live 
Japanese Prince of countless generations, of the 
purest blood, with ten of his two-sworded retainers 
as body-guard — a Prince, too, of boundless green 
acres — but our Yankee-born captain, insensible fel- 
low to blood, seems to think nothing of it. He car- 
ries Princes, he says, every trip. " Princes are noth- 
ing to him." Only a few years ago, these Princes 
all went to the Yedo Capitol with thousands of 
two-sworded retainers in their train, to whom every- 
body bowed prostrate in dust, as thej passed by in 
norimons (sedan chairs), while now, they go on a 
Yankee steamer, under a Yankee flag, with Cape 
Cod, or Taunton (Good Lord !) captains. We have 
enough of these two-sworded fellows on board now 
to take the steamer if they wished to, but, says the 
captain, " What if they did ? what could they do 
with the elephant if they had it ? " Sure, they are 



116 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

well-behaved men. We have one hundred and fifty- 
five passengers, all Japanese but some six or seven. 
Some forty-five of them are cabin passengers, others 
in the steerage. I have just been visiting them. 
They sleep on mats, not in bunks, as the Chinese 
passengers sleep, but on their very peculiar wooden 
Japanese pillow — and with their women all stretched 
out promiscuously beside them. They must be the 
best behaved people in the world. 

Magnificent green hills we are passing, clad with 
verdure to the ocean edge. The everlasting clouds 
and fogs of summer spread one universal green. I 
must repeat, it is the prettiest land I ever was in. 
England, in May, even, does not equal it. They 
do not know how to farm and to terrace in England, 
as do the Japs here. Many junks we are passing ; 
more fishing-vessels. Their torches at night light up 
the sea. Torches, they tell me, lure fish. I am 
crediting about all they tell me, though, " they tell 
me," like Dame Eumor, is at times an awful liar. 
The light-houses, too, are on every prominent point 
of the coast. Thanks to the Japanese, for thus light- 
ing up the shores. They light these houses well, 
keep them well supplied with oil, and their lights are 
as reliable as ours. Their innumerable junks profit 
by them, as well as our steamers. 

We have just dodged a typhoon ! The steamer 
preceding us, on which we were to go, took it, and 
weathered it at sea ; but here in Hiogo, where I am 
writing now, the wreck and rack are frightful. Six 



ON THE JAPAN SEAS. H7 

steamers high and dry, three of' them in utter ruins, 
are on the quay of Kobe. The ruins of junks line 
the shores. The sea wall (cut stone) is knocked all 
to pieces. A British bark, with almost all on board, 
is turned upside down on the shore. Verandas, bun- 
galows, godowns (warehouses), are knocked up, or 
over. The lost of property has been very great, and 
the loss of life deplorable. The Hiogo JVews, our 
English newspaper, says : 

" Between two hundred and fifty and three hundred houses 
have been destroyed along the shore, and six hundred junks 
reported lost. On one junk two hundred lost." 

And all along the shore for one hundred miles, 
the rumor of the loss of Japanese property and life is 
frightful. One harbor, near here, is all filled. Every 
village between here and Osaca (a great city, fifteen 
miles off) is swept away. From one thousand to six 
thousand lives have been . lost ; but there are no 
Japanese newspapers, nor news-gatherers. One can 
only guess from what Dame Humor reports. Thank 
the Lord, we are all safe. 

Every traveller, of course, wants to know what a 
typhoon or cyclone is. My curiosity is amply satis- 
fied, now, though where I was, was only a gale. My 
earthquake curiosity too is satisfied. I felt a little one 
— was shaken up in a little one at Fujisawa about two 
weeks gone by. There, in 1870, in May alone, were a 
hundred and seventy shakes. I am content with the 
little one I felt, only a little one, but it shook enough 
for me. This country is all volcanic. Its great moun- 



118 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

tain, the adoration and admiration of Japan, Fusiya- 
ma, is of volcanic birth. The soil is all volcanic. Hence 
its wealth. I shall feel a little easier as to shakes when 
I am on the other side of the Yellow Sea — for there 
are several sputtery hills and sulphur fountains here- 
about. But there is no chance of dodging the chance 
of being hit by typhoons for three thousand miles 
yet. In the distance is the city of Osaca, where the 
Japanese Government have just established a Mint. 
Governor Ito, who was in "Washington last winter, 
examining the money - making machinery at the 
Treasury, and afterward the Mint in Philadelphia, 
is in charge of it, and has organized it on the systems 
learned there. Governor Ito is well fitted for this 
position, as he possesses a clear business head, united 
with great financial ability. 

The Costa Kica here (Hiogo) is loading for Shang- 
hai, with all sorts of the' odds and ends of things. 
We are taking baskets upon baskets of camphor on 
board — good to keep off the moths. (I hope it will 
keep off fleas.) The captain dare not stow it between 
decks, for it would endanger the flavor of teas, here- 
after to come. We are taking in bales of isinglass ; 
deers' horns in hundreds of bundles, sea-weed (our 
common sea-weed) for the Chinese to eat ! (they love 
it) and biche de mer. There are a dozen steamboats 
in port now, several of them for sale to the Japs, who 
have been pretty well bitten by American and Brit- 
ish boats. Two of them have been once old gun- 
boats of ours. There arc about three hundred for- 



ON THE JAPAN SEAS. 119 

eigners here. The town is pretty, or was before 
the typhoon, that is, what is left of it is pretty, and 
the green hills over it are pretty, too. It is quite a 
place for a new cattle trade, that is opening. The 
Japs, I have written you, abhor butchers — won't let 
them enter the houses, and never eat cattle ! Beef 
now is sold to them by these butchers under the 
name of fowl. The Prince of Satzuma, who keeps up 
an army of fifteen thousand men in European style, 
gives his soldiers three rations a week on this 
" fowl ; " and he introducing the meat fashion, the de- 
sire for eating it is becoming general. But we are 
off, and adieu. 



LETTEE XIV. 

ON TEE INLAND SEA OF JAPAN. 

The Beautiful Inland Sea of Japan.— Luxurious Travelling. — Prince Hizen. — Vampire 
Cat.— Bay of Nagasaki. — The Oldest European Settlement. — The Boman Cath- 
olic Priests. — Pappehburg Island.— Thousands of Christians thrown from the 
Precipice. — The Faith of Boman Catholic Missionaries. — Street Scenes in 
Nagasaki.— Needle Making. — Porcelain Painting.— Begging Buddhist Priest. — 
Street Actors. — Japanese Confectionery .^-Japanese Woman's Toilet-Box. — Ee- 
ceipt for Blacking the Teeth. — Final Leave of Japan. 

Nagasaki, July 17, 18*71. 

This Japan, I re-declare, is the most beautiful 
country in the world — and I have now seen a good 
part -of the world. I have come down through the 
Inland Sea, by — what shall I say to give an Ameri- 
can an idea of it ? — through Lake Champlain, say, 
through Lake George, the Thousand Islands of the 
St. Lawrence, the Rocky Mountain ranges and the 
Columbia River in Oregon, Puget's Sound in "Wash- 
ington Territory, etc., etc. There is nothing that 
surpasses it, scarcely any thing that equals it, in our 
country. The Scotchman here has his Loch Lomond, 
or Loch Katrine ; the Swiss, his Genevan Lake ; the 
Englishman, "Westmoreland; the Irishman, his Kil- 
larney. "We have been sailing for twenty-four hours, 
ten miles "an hour, through a succession of changeable 
scenery, an idea of which you can only have by 



ON THE INLAND SEA OF JAPAN. 121 

bearing in mind the home beautiful spots I have 
named. The hills are covered to the very tops with 
the liveliest green, or these hills are terraced gener- 
ally with garden spots, one overhanging the other. 
Along many of the hills, and on the very summits, 
are strings of lofty trees, so trained as to make a 
seeming .continuous march of forest to forest over 
every hill-top. 

There is no more luxurious travelling on earth 
than this down the Inland Sea of Japan. True, a 
hot sun is over our heads, often clouded, though, and 
affording a canopy. We are on the upper deck, on 
the bow of the steamer, under ample awnings, in 
bamboo chairs, made purposely to* fit the human 
(extended) form. The moving air fans us. Ice, all 
the way from Boston, abounds for us. "We can have 
iced tea in abundance, or, if we will, mint-juleps, 
even. The unknown Prince, whom I spoke of in a 
former letter as a fellow-passenger, turns out to be 
the Prince of Hizen, one of the eighteen chief 
Daimios of Japan, on his way to his estates near 
Nagasaki, where, as owner of coal mines, if judi- 
ciously managed, he is one of the richest princes in 
the world. I showed him, in "Tales of Japan," 
published in English, a wood-cut of "the Vampire 
Cat of Nabeshima," in which his family figured 
many years ago. The story is of a Prince of Hizen 
who had in his house a lady of rare beauty, whom a 
large cat throttled, then taking her form, and making 
the Prince believe she (the cat) was the real beauty. 



122 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

The Prince kept on in love with the cat, but the cat 
sucked all his life away. The beautiful woman was 
at last found out to be a vampire cat, when a battle 
ensued, and the cat, worsted in the fight, re-turned 
cat, and escaping from the fighting room, was shot by 
the Prince's retainers. The Prince laughed heartily 
over the picture, and seemed to enjoy the fable. 

The Bay of Nagasaki is, if possible, more beauti- 
ful than the scenery of the Inland Sea. The hills 
rise boldly from the water's edge, and land-lock the 
harbor. Everything here is fresh and silent now, as 
if there were not some seventy or eighty thousand 
human beings on the hill : sides. The sun had just 
gone, as we stemmed inward, and people in these 
lands retire early to their mats, and rise early to 
greet the morning sun. 

I sallied forth with that morning sun to see men 
and things, as then, they are best to be seen. The 
pomegranate and palm, the persimmon and bamboo, 
are here. There is a strange commingling of the 
temperate and torrid zones. Side by side, oaks 
and trees, and feathery bamboos and palms, flourish 
in equal beauty. The sober hues of the north are 
mingled with the more vivid verdure of the tropics. 
The brown fish-hawk, swooping down from the hills 
upon his finny prey, or poised in the air, makes the 
hills echo with his wild cry. 

Nagasaki is the oldest European settlement in 
Japan, and yet there are said to be not over one 
hundred and fifty Europeans there now, which means 



ON THE INLAND SEA OF JAPAN. 123 

Americans, too, for all here bear one name. The 
Dutch were pent up here for two centuries in the 
little Island of Decima, and allowed only once a year 
to visit a neighboring hill, and then under a strong 
guard. Xavier and his followers gained a footing 
here in the sixteenth century, to propagate the Holy 
Catholic faith. The galleons of Portugal and Spain, 
centuries ago, were here. Princes went from here 
to make their obeisance in Eome to the Pope. But 
a cruel Tycoon, alarmed by the triumphs of the 
Church over the people, fulminated an edict against 
all foreigners, shut up the Dutch in Decima, and 
then pitched thousands of Christians who would not 
repent (backwards), from the rocky cliffs of Pappen- 
berg Island into the ocean below. Never since that 
period, when the Roman Catholics may have been 
said to rule the millions of Japan — ruling them more, 
perhaps, by their science, learning, and arts, than by 
the force of the Bible — have any Christians been 
permitted as missionaries to enter Japan, save in the 
four open consular ports. The rulers of Japan, even 
now, are energetically resisting all the representations 
and claims of Catholic and Protestant foreign minis- 
ters for " toleration ; " and it is the very last thing, 
in the new treaty to be made in 1872, that the 
Japanese will yield. A French priest, passenger 
with me, mourns plaintively over the blows his 
church has received both in China and Japan, but is 
sure, nevertheless, the day is soon coming when God 
will open the highways and waters to the ministers 



124 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

of the Propaganda fides in Rome. Nor is there any 
reason, if the masses of the people were permitted to 
be approached, why all should not become Christians 
— for the mere outward differences between the 
worship of the idol god, Buddha, and the Catholic 
altars, seem slight, while the Buddhist heaven, as 
denned in the classic books, is almost our God. This 
very seeming similarity, though, makes the Buddhist 
priests bitter in their opposition, and they have of 
late had force enough with the Government to 
abstract some thousands of Catholics (the cherished 
relics of the old Catholic missionaries, that have in 
secret handed down their faith) to places unknown, 
but probably to the mines of Yeso, there to work 
out a wretched existence. 

The streets of Nagasaki would afford to me end- 
less interest, if I only had time to explore them, for 
every thing is done out of doors. There are the manu- 
facturers, by hand, of needles, and the needles are so 
much better than ours, that the Japanese won't buy 
ours. There, too, are the workers on lacquer, paint- 
ing with it on porcelain vases — work exquisitely 
done by men squatting on their haunches and nearly 
naked. There is a little wheel, spinning cotton, that 
grandma is lazily turning — she, too, squatting, and 
naked to her waist. Here is a splendid porcelain 
warehouse, that my eyes water to see, and that I 
would buy the whole of, if I had money enough. For 
one pair of vases, some eight feet high, six hundred 
dollars is wanted. The bamboo cups, the egg-shell 



ON THE INLAND SEA OF JAPAN. 125 

saucers, I would buy scores of them, if they would 
bear packing iu a trunk, and stand the rattle trunks 
have here — on poles and bullocks' backs; for there 
is only one road for wheels in Japan — the Tocaido — 
the rest for cangos, norimons, ponies, and bullocks, 
and coolies, with the poles, who bring on their backs, 
loads fifty miles to market. There are plays going 
on, even now, seven o'clock in the morning. The 
actors daub their faces all over with white powder, 
rouge their lips, tattoo their bodies with paint, and 
then " go at it " before any crowd they can collect in 
the streets. The streets are narrow, and so all walk- 
ers must go through the theatrical crowd. I fol- 
lowed a big bullock, heavily laden, and the crowd 
marvelled not over him, but over me set up a jolly 
howl — the bullock they knew ; the wandering Yankee 
was unknown, and the jokes they cracked at my ex- 
pense seemed to be many. There, come three Buddhist 
priests, collecting alms, rattling little bells on a pole, 
praying for tempos or cash, and then handing out a 
contribution-box. Everybody that had any thing 
seemed to give a little. I followed their example. 
Was this right, or wrong ? Am I a heathen, or not ? 
But, on the sands of the Dead Sea (in Palestine), I 
tumbled down, with my head toward Mecca, just as 
the Bedouins did — having long ago learned, even on 
the Adriatic, "when among the Romans to do as 
the Eomans do." There, is a confectionery shop. 
The Japanese are as fond of candies as are our 
people. They make just what you want. I asked 



126 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

for a fish and got it — a respectable-sized fish — for 
two or three cents, with sugar enough in it to make 
a man sick a week. A merchant, who seems to 
be rich in the good things of the world, has just let 
one of our ladies peep into his wife's inner bed-cham- 
ber, and here is the brief result of her explorations : 

Little or no furniture ; no chairs ; no bedstead — nothing but 
mats to sleep on. A toilet-box was on the floor, near the wall — 
about the only article of furniture in the room. In this box 
there were five drawers, and two lacquer basins on top. In the 
top drawer of this box there was a metallic mirror, like our 
hand-glasses. In the second drawer she kept her powder, paint, 
wax, brush, tooth-powder and brush. Two little drawers 
came next ; in one she had her false hair, and in the other 
fancy pins, gilt paper, and other fixings for her hair. In the 
lower drawer was her pillow, which is placed under the neck 
when sleeping on the mats, so as to prevent the hair from being 
rumpled. It is made of wood, and covered with paper on the 
top. The pOwder looks like starch, and when they use it they 
mix a little water with it, and rub it in like paste ; and they 
have two brushes that they use to rub it off with. The paint 
looks green, and turns red, when put on the lips and cheeks. 

The following is her receipt for blacking the teeth : 

Take three pints of water, and having warmed it, add half a . 
tea- cupful of wine (saki ?). Put into this mixture a quantity of 
red-hot iron; allow it to stand five or six days, when there 
will be a scum on the top of the mixture, which should then be 
poured into a small tea-cup and placed near the fire. "When it 
is warm, powdered gall-nuts and iron filings should be added 
to it, and the whole should be warmed again. The liquid is 
then painted on the teeth by a soft feather brush, with more 
powdered gall-nuts and iron, and after several applications, the 
desired color will be obtaiued. 

Whether the married women like thus to black 
their teeth or not, is disputed among foreign residents 



ON THE INLAND SEA OF JAPAN. 127 

here. The men compel them, however, to do it, 
whether they like it or not, for it is the great sign by 
which a man consecrates and shows off his female 
chattel to the world. "Whoever has blackened teeth 
is not to be touched by other men, on pain of death. 
The eyebrows of married women, I may as well add 
here, are shaved, and -their lips rouged! (Eeeds 
there, then, this penalty of death ? ) 

The Japanese women are not pretty; but they 
have charming natural manners; with beautifully 
shaped arms, and tiny hands. The young women 
are all as remarkable for their superb white teeth, as 
the married ones are for their hideous black ones. 
This custom originated some two or three hundred 
years ago, and is supposed to show the wife's devo- 
tion to her hnsband. One of the Mikado's wives (so 
goes the legend) was very lovely, and to show her 
indifference to her personal appearance, and to prove 
her love for her husband, blackened her beautiful 
teeth and shaved off her eyebrows. This was con- 
sidered such a sacrifice, that all living wives (not 
to be outdone by Mrs. Mikado) followed her exam- 
ple. The custom has become compnlsory. 

In now bidding a final adieu to Japan, I feel a 
regret I never felt in leaving a foreign country before. 
It is so beautiful ! The people seem so amiable ! 
The happiness apparently so universal ! But I feel 
that in my hasty skimming and sketching I know 
nothing of it, and, doubtless, I have blundered often 
in what I have so hastily pencilled, as you see by this 



128 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

manuscript, on mulberry (Japan) paper. Forgive, 
then, all blunders. A little is perhaps better than 
nothing, even if error is in it at times. Lovers of 
fruits and of vegetables will not find them in Japan. 
The peach is not fit to eat. There is nothing, in the 
fruit way, eatable but plums. The vegetation has 
no taste. Sheep cannot live in Japan. The grass 
kills them, after repeated experiments; and hence, 
we have no mutton, save what is imported from 
China. But the fish are excellent, and the beef 
tender and good. One,- therefore, will not starve 
amid the beauties of Japan. 



LETTER XV. 

ON, AND OVJEB TO CHINA. 

On the Yellow Sea, bound to Shanghai.— The Great Yang-tze and its Yellow Water. 
— Up the "Whang-poo. — Reflections on entering the Great Gates of China. — 
Thermometer in Shanghai.— Hot, Hotter, Hottest.— Air wanted, a Puff or a 
Typhoon. — Things In and About Shanghai. — The Summer Costume. — Innumer- 
able Mounds or Graves in the Cotton-Fields.— American Flag in the Yang-tze. — 
We are taking the Coasting Trade of China, etc. 

Shanghai, July, 1871. 

Exit Japan ! Lo, presto, China ! Good-by, ye 
polysyllabic Japanese, Kotsuki no Kami Kuranos- 
ukie, Uzesugi, Kobayashi, Shimidgu Ikaku ; and wel- 
come, now, Ah Sin, A Pu, Sing Sing, Jung Ku, Ki 
Sam — nay, all of the monosyllabic Chinese vocabu- 
lary ! I am on the Yellow Sea, or just south of the 
Yellow Sea, on my way to the islands of the Yang-tze, 
thence to the Hwang p'u, or Whang-poo, on, to Shang- 
hai, the great Asiatic-European commercial city. The 
water is now so yellow, that I should have no hesita- 
tion in calling it the Yellow Sea, if they did not tell 
me that all this " yellow " comes from the mud of the 
great Yang-tze River, which begins somewhere up in 
the Thibet Mountains, and runs and crooks, three 
thousand miles to the oceau, with all the dirt and 
filth, it can gather from innumerable cities, and all 



130 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

the mud it can sweep out from thousands of valleys 
and mountains. So many canals empty into this 
great river, that it may be said to be the inlet and 
outlet of the commerce of the three or four hundred 
millions of Chinamen — for, which is it, three or four 
hundred millions, the population here? — Nobody 
knows — at least, no one can answer ! Three hundred 
millions, however, are enough for a nation, are they 
not ? And hence, the river that draws off the dirt of 
these millions upon millions must be yellow enough 
to ' yellow even a sea. The Yankee steamer's wheels 
are splashing through these yellow-made waves, some 
forty, some sixty miles off from the coast — for thus, j 
long before you get into China, you are upon its | 
watery soil. Shoals, shallows of mud, islands un- | 
der water and over water, at times, are all about us. ' 
Pilot boats, of course, are indispensable, and we j 
greet, with no little pleasure, miles and miles off, I 
a New- York-looking pilot-boat, with a John Bull 
pilot on board, who relieves the anxious mind of 
our Cape Cod Yankee captain, and conducts us tow- 
ard the port. 

Upon entering this vast portal, of this, the great- 
est empire upon earth, where so much of human life 
has been ebbing in and out, so many thousands of 
years, that history is blinded, and cannot number the 
many, one cannot help dreaming or thinking a little 
out loud. Here, is a country older than Jerusalem, 
older than Egypt, probably — a country which was 
comparatively civilized centuries before, when we 



ON, AND OVER TO CHINA. 131 

Caucasians were barbarians — once going ahead for 
centuries (nay, probably up to the time it touched 
our European civilization), but now going astern — a 
country that blessed us with the compass, the art of 
printing, and blessed us (or cursed us) with gun- 
powder — the land of Confucius and Mencius, whose 
heavenly teachings, though older than Christ's, seem, 
most of them, to have been almost as much inspired ; 
and I, a Yankee, from a new world and long un- 
known, under a Yankee flag, with Yankee paddle- 
wheels, am coasting up into it, with the proud con- 
sciousness that this use of steam is my own country- 
man's discovery, with the telegraph, and hundreds of 
other good things more, but now far, far beyond the 
celestial Chinaman's dreams, nay, even despised by 
him, as he despises " the foreign devil," that outside 
barbarian, who is tormenting him with novelties. 
This is the land of the mulberry and of the busy silk- 
worm, of silks, of satins, the luxurious prizes Roman 
matrons coveted, but yearned for often in vain, De- 
cause of their enormous cost, and of the leaf that ships 
for three centuries now, have been risking every thing 
to win — the tea-leaf, I mean— a beverage, though 
coming from the Yang-tze, that every maid and 
maiden, as well as man, feels now to be a necessity 
of life, whether he or she lives on the Don, or the 
Volga, or the Thames, or the Liffey — by the Sacra- 
mento or the Passamaquoddy — in Oregon or in JSTova 
Scotia. A boy emperor, now only fifteen, reigns 
over this vast empire, and these millions upon mill- 



132 A SEVEN MONTHS' KUN. 

ions, in fear and trembling, all obey. Exit, this sort I 
of ejaculation. Miter, China. 

Shanghai is from Nagasaki (Japan) four hundred 
and fifty-nine miles, from Hiogo (or Kobe) three ; 
hundred and eighty-six miles, from Yokohama three '■ 
hundred and forty-two miles ; fare, one hundred dol- i 
lars, first-class, other classes any price; for these one 
thousand one hundred and eighty-seven miles, time, 
including stoppages, one week. Shanghai is not on 
the great river, but on the Whang-poo, only a tidal 
river, some forty miles long, but on which great 
ships do enter, not without some fear, though, of 
being stuck in the mud. Indeed, the whole of this 
country about here is mud-made — like the Mississip- 
pi, or the Nile Deltas — and islands are ever popping 
up, and growing, where once great ships swam. The 
land-greedy Chinese bank up, and rob Neptune when- 
ever they can, and the consequence is, that when a 
hot, baking July sun shoots down its rays upon vast 
areas of fresh mud, a malaria poisons the region all 
round about — so that, as I enter here, already I 
wish I was anywhere else ; but I only mean to run the 
gauntlet, and be off in the first boat. 



The thermometer is the biggest liar that ever 
lived. It is only ninety-five or ninety-eight degrees 
here at night, and one hundred or one hundred and 
three degrees by day, and yet it is hotter, intensely 
hotter, than I have felt it in the Napa (California) 
Yalley, coming from the Geysers, in July, at one 



ON, AND OVER TO CHINA. 133 

hundred and eighteen degrees, or, on the sands of 
Egypt. Thermometers, therefore, I have no hesita- 
tion in saying, lie, not exactly in words, or figures, 
or letters, but in spirit, in substance, in caloric, at 
least. I am suffocating here ! I cannot get breath 
enough ! "What would I give for a puff, and how 
much more for a typhoon, even if a destructive one ? 
There is no air, night nor day, and, if possible, it is 
hotter by night than by day. There is no sleep in 
this oven-bed, and if there were, the mosquitoes 
would eat you up, if you did not throw over you the 
well-reticulated net. A mattress is unendurable ; a 
mat has to be laid on that, or your perspiration would 
stick you to the mattress. Never, never, Yankee 
pilgrim, enter here in June, July, or August. They 
say you can breathe, and live, and sleep, in all the 
other months of the year ; but if you will be such a 
fool as I am, and come, drink, and drink deep, not 
exactly of the Pierian Spring — not water, for that is 
poison here — but claret, hock, champagne, porter, 
beer, and eat ice, and little else, except bread and 
meat. Shanghai is nearly in the latitude of Northern 
Florida ; but amid low lands as it is, on which are 
boundless fields of cotton, near the mouth of the 
great Yang-tze, doubtless, the climate is like that of 
New Orleans, on the Mississippi, with the ther- 
mometer ranging higher. What I know for a cer- 
tainty is, you will never catch me here again in July, 
if there be any way of getting around it, or over it, 
or under it. 



134 A SEVEN MONTHS' KUN. 

The foreign residents of Shanghai suffer not a lit- 
tle this season of the year ; but here, then, they must 
stay, for now is the season of " tea," and " silk," the 
great exported staples of the country. In winter they 
can play, but never in the summer. They prepare 
themselves for being roasted as well as possible — not 
exactly in our Georgia, or the Japanese, natural cos- 
tume, but as near to it, as civilization will permit. 
They go without shirts, to begin with. A white flan- 
nel frock-coat, closely fitting the body, somewhat 
fancifully made, with white linen trowsers, is the cos- 
tume. !No dickey is sported over that coat. ISTo dickey 
could stand the drippings of perspiration here over 
five minutes, if on. They live thus, and do business 
with a punka, or wind-flap, flying over them, ever 
kept going by a half-sleeping coolie (Chinaman). "We 
breakfast by punkas ; we dine by punkas. Heaven 
giving us no breezes, men raise as many artificial 
winds as possible. ISTo one ventures out, if it can be 
helped, till the sun is going down. A great two- 
story, long-tailed pith hat is then sported. They ride 
out toward sunset in " traps," low-hung carriages, 
drawn by one pony, or, in a California-made carriage, 
with California horses, where that costly luxury can 
be afforded ; or, they go in sedan chairs, or, are wheel- 
ed by a Chinaman, two at a time, on a wheelbarrow, 
dog-cheap for such rides as that — the vilest invention, 
by the way, for going, I have ever seen yet — worse, 
if possible, than the Japanese cango. 

The evening drive in Shanghai to the bubbling 



i 



ON, AND OYER TO CHINA. 135 

spring seems to be the great event of the day. Then, 
the sweltering foreigners turn out into the country, 
to breathe the air — (but is there ever any ?) — and in 
their various vehicles they make long processions, for 
the turn-outs are numerous here, and the foreign 
population is well-to-do in the world, if not wealthy, 
all. Woe ! woe ! however, to any poor wretch of a 
Chinaman in the way of one of these traps, or vehicles 
— for all drive with the fury of Jehus, among them, 
and through the thickest of their narrow streets, 
without any seeming regard to life or limb. The idea 
is, or seems to be, that " Shanghai belongs to us, not 
to you," and, " get out of the way, or we will ride, 
rough-shod over you." "Wonderful to say, however, but 
few accidents occur, and when they do, the foreigners 
pay for them in a way abundant enough to satisfy 
the Chinese love of money. 

On all these drives out of Shanghai, what most 
arrests an American's attention, especially one just 
now, with half a foot in the grave, from the diseases 
of the climate, are the graves or mounds of the Chi- 
nese, which seem to dot, if not to half cover, the 
great cotton-fields all about. These mounds or graves 
have been going up — how many years shall I say ? 
four thousand ? Quien sdbe f — and in many places 
they seem to cover the ground, essentially interfering 
with and obstructing cultivation. The Chinese rev- 
erence, nay, worship their ancestors, and hence pre- 
serve these ancestral graves, mere mounds, with idol- 
atrous veneration. Cultivation would be desecration. 



136 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

though, they do use the grass grown over them to feed 
their cattle. At first, the dead are left on the top of 
the ground in two-storied coffins, and then, in time, 
over these coffins, the earth is piled. These mounds, 
now innumerable, these coffins, thus uplifted, are not 
exactly pleasant suggestions, under a July sun, and 
they mar the pleasures of the drive, "till the eye is ac- 
customed to them, as it can be to anything. They 
have become, too, great obstructions to the advance- 
ment and improvement of the country — for no rail- 
road can be run through, or, over them ; no telegraph, 
with the evil spirit on its wires, near them ; nor com- 
mon road, without a world of expense and negotia- 
tion. The race-course here is full of grave mounds, 
save on the track, and how the track was cleared of 
these graves, I have not learned, doubtless, by the 
omnipotence in China (as elsewhere) of the almighty 
dollar. 

But, upon the whole, even in July, and to a half 
dead man, as I have been ever since I breathed what 
is miscalled " air " here, Shanghai is an achievement, 
a wonderful place, considering how it has arisen from 
the swamp in only four or five years. There are beau- 
tiful Italian villas all through it. There are churches 
that would do honor to New York. There are clubs 
with all the luxuries of the clubs of London or New 
York. British and American mercantile houses, 
mainly, with some German and French, have made 
good streets, good roads, and made good municipal 
governments — self-elected — all within five or six 



ON, AND OVER TO CHINA. 137 

years. Some three thousand foreigners live here, en- 
joyiDg all the blessings of life, except water and air 
— (don't laugh) — and make money, and grow rich, 
and then go home, if they don't die here, to enjoy it. 
They have daily and weekly newspapers — well- writ- 
ten ones, too — and doctors (of course), and lawyers, 
and courts. Every foreign nation, you know, has 
exclusive jurisdiction over its own subjects, and the 
British have their especial judges, while our judges 
are our consuls. Where commerce is by the millions, 
as it is here, the law cases are often of the gravest 
importance ; and I see by the journals, the lawyers 
argue with as much force and ability as if in the 
United States or in England. "We Americans have 
our gaol here ; the British and other nations have 
theirs. The Chinese but look on — for Shanghai is 
foreign-governed in every sense, except the sov- 
reignty territorial. It is wonderful that such mixed 
systems have worked so well; that the police is so 
effective, the pilots and harbor arrangements so good, 
and that so many nations live together in such har- 
mony. 

An American place is Shanghai now — far more 
than any other place in China ; and though the Brit- 
ish manufacturers have nearly driven us out of the 
market, in cotton and woollen goods, and driven our 
ships off the ocean, yet Americans " never say die," 
and work, and work well, despite the destructiveness 
of our tariff law. The Pacific Mail Company (ours) 
have nearly driven off, with then* weekly lines to 



138 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

Japan, English, and French competition; and they 
have done it by the superiority of their steamers, and 
their superior management of them. They live, that 
is all ; but they live in the hope of a better day, while 
the flag that they float here makes every American 
proud of bis country. But a few years gone by, 
Americans sent out here some of our river steamers, 
to run from Shanghai to Hankow, six hundred miles 
off, up the great Tang-tze — the Amazon, the Missis- 
sippi, of China. Boats from Mystic (Conn.), and from 
other parts of New England and New York, were 
sent here. But that day is over. "We can build no 
more ships in Mystic, or anywhere, under our laws ; 
but the day for our flag to be emblazoned on the 
Tang-tze is not yet over. We are bringing out the 
workmen, and are going to build snips here. We 
buy the timber in Oregon, or Washington Territory, 
and put it together here. There are eighteen steamers 
under our flag now on the Tang-tze, running six 
hundred miles up and down, and coining money. 
There are others running once or twice a week to 
Tientsin (en route to Pekin), all under our flag, and 
floating it before millions and millions of Chinamen's 
eyes, who are thus taught to look upon " the flowery 
flag," so they call it, as omnipresent, everywhere, 
in the Tellow Sea and in the North of China. But 
some of these ships are already British purchased 
ships, with no right to our flag, save under consular 
authority. They have never seen an American port, 
and therefore, under our laws, can never enter there. 



ON, AND OVER TO CHINA. 139 

These American steamers, with their superior ac- 
commodations, have nearly monopolized the vast 
commerce of the great Yang-tze. Forty thousand 
junkmen, wails an official Mandarin, have been thrown 
out of employment in the coasting-trade alone ! Per- 
haps so ; but if so, they have increased the home 
value of Chinese teas and silks more than the 
worth of the useless labor of forty thousand junkmen. 
For a while they had all the freights to themselves. 
The British resisted at first, by sending their clippers 
up the Tang-tze to Hankow ; but the navigation for 
sailing ships is so difficult and dangerous, that the 
insurance becomes more than the freight. !N*o w they 
are sending quick tea steamers. 



LETTEK XYI. 

TEE EEALTE OF CEINA. 

Where's Chefoo ?— A Watering-Place in China.— Amusements There.— The Amer- 
ican and Other Fleets. — The Noisy Salutations of the Fleets. — Church Service 
on the Colorado. — The Corean Expedition. — The Eace of the Eival American 
Barges. — Bain here. — Breakfast by the Eussian Admiral. — The English (Uni- 
versal) Language. — Entertainments given us by the Eussians.— Affinity of 
Eussians and J Americans. — Admiral Eodgers's State Breakfast. — Divine Service 
on board the Eussian Flag-Ship. — A Busy Week.— The Novel Assemblage at 
Chefoo about to disperse. 

Cheefo, August 1, 18*71. 

Q. Where's Chefoo? A. Close by Corea. Q. 
"Where's Corea ? A. Look on the map and see. But 
the whereabouts of Corea all of you ought by this 
time to know — for our Admiral Jack Rodgers has 
just been thundering and lightning there with his 
little fleet, and is now back here, with lots of Corean 
trophies, battle-flags, jingalls, spears, etc. Corea is just 
across the Yellow Sea, about two hundred miles from 
this promontory of Shantung, and you can go there 
in a day. Chefoo is, in summer, to Shanghai and 
Pekin, the Newport, Long Branch, or Cape May of 
China. The Shanghaites send up here their wives 
and children, to live through the summer, and come 
occasionally themselves, while the Pekin-European 
residents come down here to escape, as they say, the 
terrible heats of Pekin. It is five hundred and twelve 



THE HEALTH OF CHINA. 141 

miles from Shanghai, about four hundred from Pekin, 
in about the latitude, and with the air, of Old Point 
Comfort (Ya.), mosquitoes included — and a few extra 
fleas, and an occasional scorpion, added on ! Never- 
theless, Chefoo is the summer heaven of the Shanghai 
Hades. I feel as if I were in Paradise. I am revel- 
ling just on the borders of the ocean, surf, with nine 
American and European war-ships in the port, with 
their flags, all in the range and sight of our fair and 
comfortable summer hotel. This fleet must have on 
board, in all, some twenty-five hundred Americans, 
French, Germans, and Russians, and they make Che- 
foo, otherwise desolate — with not a road in it, or 
around it, for vehicles, and no communication but by 
sedan chairs— a very jolly place, at least for this 
summer. "We go everywhere we can, by water. The 
coolies take us through the surf, in their chairs, to 
the boats, or, we get on the back of some lusty sailor, 
who takes pleasure in saving us from a ducking, as 
we go to visit the ships. "We have nearly recovered 
our health, all of us — are ready for anything — and 
these combined fleets, whose officers are all on good 
terms, the one with the other, are giving fun enough 
to everybody. The place, just now, is a second ex- 
Old Point Comfort, or, the regatta season at New- 
port—with breakfast parties, dinner parties, water 
parties, dances, serenades, etc. Three foreign min- 
isters of the great powers are here-^-the Kussian, 
General Ylangali, the British, Mr. Wade, the Amer- 
ican, Mr. Low — with their attaches, retinues, etc. 



142 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

Four bands of music are on board the ships — one, on 
the Colorado (American), one, on the Almas (Rus- 
sian), one, on the Ocean (British), and one, on the 
Herther (German.) Here are materials enough for 
society, you see, in this great naval rendezvous — a 
place chosen for its health, and where ships congre- 
gate for the sake of their crews. There are two 
hotels here, a mile apart, the one inaccessible to the 
other, in consequence of creeks to be waded, save in 
sedan chairs ; and in one or the other of these hotels, 
every evening, before dinner, which is at eight o'clock, 
p. m., one or the other of the four bands plays. I 
often ask myself, what do the Chinese say — patient, 
hard-working fellows — what do they think of these 
great, boisterous, ever ship thundering cannon saluta- 
tions, and over this invasion of their otherwise quiet 
little Chefoo ? Every minister has to be saluted — 
every admiral, every consul — and hence, from these 
nine ships-of-war, gunpowder, by day, seems ever ex- 
ploding. The roar rattles in and around, and echoes 
from the Chefoo hills; and Confucius, born in this 
province, whose grave is not far off, must feel his 
bones shake, if there be any of his bones left. 

Sunday. — We went to church on board the Colora- 
do — the full Episcopal service, and nearly all the crew 
attending. It seemed strange, but reverential, here, 
in this far-off land, to be hearing that beautiful 
service, between decks, in our own native tongue, 
from our own chaplain. It transported us to our 
distant Sabbath home, and we felt as if we were 



THE HEALTH OF CHINA. 143 

there, when, on the planks of one of our ships, the 
chaplain prayed " for the President of the United 
States and all others in authority." The Colorado 
officers recited to us their unprinted and as yet un- 
written adventures in Corea — as surveyors, as sailor- 
soldiers — and they showed the numerous little tro- 
phies they had taken. All say, " never were bolder, 
braver men than these Coreans," whose commanders' 
orders, " death or victory," they executed to the letter, 
by dying, save, when wounded, they could not con- 
tinue the fight to die. Not a word, as yet, have our 
fleet heard from the Government in Washington, in 
reply to letters or telegrams ; and now, they but await 
the coming mail due here, to abandon the expedition, 
and to start for Japan, to be in port as safe as pos- 
sible during the approaching typhoon season. 

Monday. — Rain, rain, nothing but rain ! A long, 
dry season has been followed by a severe rain. 
Houses stand drouths here pretty well ; but this rain 
is washing away our hotel. The builders here build 
of mud, and lime, and straw — much mud and little 
lime — and hence, when a flood comes, such as we are 
having now, the mud washes away, and down tumble 
ceilings, and walls, and plastering, and every thing 
else. Certain it is, our hotel is being washed down, 
and is running off into the Chefoo Bay ; and, if it 
washes much more, we shall have to take to the Co- 
lorado, the Alaska, or the Benicia, the American 
ships now in port, for refuge from the flood. Pekin, 
I am told, whither I am now travelling, is pretty 



144 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

well under mud, if not all under water — for the floods 
above have been severe, while the Peiho Eiver (the 
river near Pekin) is running over. 

Tuesday. — There Was a great boat-race between 
the barges of the Colorado and the Alaska — and never 
did a regatta excite greater interest in New York, or 
in Southampton (England), than did this regatta. 
Two admirals — one American (Rodgers), one Rus- 
sian (Federovski) — and two foreign ministers — Gen. 
Vlangali (Russian) and Mr. Low (American) — with 
aids, captains, lieutenants, too numerous to mention, 
were on hand. The crews of the three American 
ships were in the highest state of excitement, running 
to the rigging and manning the yards, as if so many 
birds — all, more or less, having staked something on 
the result, and all, therefore, winning or losing a 
little of that something. The barge of the Alaska 
won, and the Colorado, the flag-ship, was down- 
hearted, of course. 

Thursday. — Breakfasted with Admiral Fede- 
rovski, on board his flag-ship, the Almas, in company 
with the American and Russian ambassadors, and 
admirals, and captains of all the war-ships in port — 
making a large party of us. The breakfast was in 
European style — French — prepared by a French 
restaurant-keeper here, and sent on board. A line 
Russian band played during the breakfast, which 
lasted two hours or more. There were French, Ger- 
man, and Russian officials at table, but all spoke 
English — some well, all passably well. The English 



THE HEALTH OF CHINA. 145 

language, I see — and the more I see, the better I see 
it — is becoming the universal language of the- edu- 
cated world. Twenty or twenty-five years ago, or 
less, only French would carry you through the world ; 
but now it is impossible to go anywhere, from the 
pyramids of Egypt to the mountains of Japan, that' 
English will not pretty well carry you along. Chi- 
nese house servants, more or less, speak English — 
" pigeon English," as it is called — but, nevertheless, 
comprehensible English ; and go where yon will, in 
whatever society, English seems now to be the 
tongue. Such are the conquests of the almighty 
dollar, with the diffusion of English colonization in 
America, the Indies, Australia, and elsewhere. One 
of the Eussians with us to-day, the secretary of the 
Pekin Embassy, was educated in Oxford (England), 
and speaks English better than the English them- 
selves — that is, without their hemming, and hawing, 
and hesitating, and repeating, and re-repeating. The 
Russian ambassador and the Russian admiral both 
speak English ; and what was remarkable, in a group 
afterward, when landed on shore, the German com- 
mander leading off in German, the whole gronp of 
Russians followed him, as if German were their native 
tongue. 

The Russian admiral gave us, and the ladies with 
us, a novel treat after the breakfast was over ; and 
that was the Russian (peasant) dance, executed with 
admirable\effect by his sailors. One of the officers, 
too, threw off his uniform, and put on a sailor's garb, 



146 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

to enter into the dance, and in spirit, vivacity, and 
energy contributed to our common enjoymentof the 
strange spectacle of a Russian peasant dance on a 
Chinese sea. The band, too, played several Russian 
airs, and one, a national one, with great interest to 
us. The whole crew united with the band in singing 
the national anthem. To the Russian admiral, who 
made every effort to please us, we were much indebt- 
ed ; and we left, after enjoying one of the pleasantest 
days of life. The Russians seem naturally to " take " 
to us Americans, and we " take " to them. 

Friday. — Admiral Rodgers gave a " state " break- 
fast to the Russian admiral, the French captain-in- 
chief, the German captain-in-chief, the English cap- 
tain-in-chief — to the Russian and American Ministers, 
and to your humble servant. These officers, all ex- 
cept the Frenchman and German, seem to be on con- 
fidential terms with each other, even in matters of 
their profession, and their conversation was prolonged 
for hours in mutual instruction and profit. 

Saturday. — Tisited the Alaska, entertained by 
Captain Blake, of New York, who distinguished him- 
self on James River and in Texas, commanding the 
Iiatteras, during our civil war, and who was com- 
mander of the late Corean expedition. By the way, 
I may say, this Corean expedition is given up, unless 
our Government orders to the contrary, which is not 
probable, before the intervention of Congress. The 
ships will next week disperse — the Colorado to Yoko- 
hama, the Alaska to Nagasaki, the Benicia up the 



THE HEALTH OF CHINA. 147 

Yang-tze to Hankow, after a visit to Shanghai, and 
the Palos up the gulf here, to North China. 

Sunday, 10^- a. m. — Revisited, by invitation of 
Admiral Eederovski, the Almas, to attend divine 
service. A Greek priest, a very handsome fellow, in 
a black cassock, with a heavy-linked gold chain, up- 
holding a golden cross, officiated. The service was 
in old Eussian (Sclave). I could not profit much by 
it, in what was harder than " all Greek " to me ; but 
in the extemporized chapel, flag-created, with its 
altars, images, candles, and incense, there was quite 
enough solemnity to be well understood. Another 
breakfast was given us here, after the service was 
over, with another Russian country dance. 

Four and a-half p. m. — Yisited, by invitation of 
Captain Hewett, the British ship, Ocean, larger than 
the Colorado, with two hundred more men on board 
— one of the large-class ships — with a very pleasant 
entertainment on board. 

• ••■•• 

I have gone into this recitative, personal journal- 
ism, only to give you an idea of the way we kill time 
in a little, dirty Chinese town, all mud and dirt, ex- 
cept on the sands where we are, and to show you rep- 
resentative squadron and diplomatic life in a sum- 
mer European-coast city of China. There will be 
an infinite deal of gossip in the Chinese and Japan- 
ese English and American press, as to what all this 
assemblage means, of the American, British, Eussian, 
Erench, and German squadrons, with their admirals 



148 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

and three ministers plenipotentiary. But all means 
only this — Health, in a not healthy country, in the 
unhealthy season — and nothing else. " Corea" is 
reported to be the great matter of consultation. I am 
said to have brought out secret orders from the Unit- 
ed States Government. Corean junks have arrived 
here, as spies on our squadron ; but there is nothing 
going on, save what I have journalized above. The 
British minister, in the morning, returns to Pekin. 
I go too — by water and by mud (this is yet the rainy 
season), if none of us break down under the weather 
in the interior. If nothing happens, you will hear 
from me again in about a month, and I will tell you 
something of the great capital of three hundred mil- 
lions of Chinamen. I am thinking, too, of Siberia, 
and of going home via St. Petersburg ; but I fear, in 
consequence of brigands lately reported on the route, 
I shall have to give it up. 



LETTEE XYII. 

ON THE PEIHO RIVER. 

Tremendous Flood on the Eiver of Peiho.— Whole Villages washed away.— The 
People drowned out. — "Widespread Desolation. — Living on the Eiver on a Yankee 
Steamer. — The Grand Canal broken loose. — The Crooked Peiho Kiver. — The "Way 
we wound up the Eiver. — The Tear-ago Massacre of Europeans and Catholics in 
Tien-tsin. — The then Fright *of all Missionaries. — Scare about going there.— 
Guns and Gunboats Commercial and Christian Guarantees. — An Exploration of 
the Old Under-water Tien-tsin, in a British Launch. — Innumerable Junks. — The 
Euins of the Eoman Catholic Cathedral. — The Tombs of the slain Sisters. — Ter- 
rors predicted for Tourists to Pekin.— Nevertheless, On, On to Pekin. 

Tien-tsin, August 10, 1871. 

Look on the map, and yon will find where this 
place ought to be, when not nnder water, as now — 
on the Peiho Eiver, the gateway to Pekin from the 
Gnlf of Pe-chih-li, and where the British and French 
took their great points of departure, when, some 
years gone by, some thousands of them paid their 
respects to the celestial Emperor, in his celestial 
palace — respects not of the Jcouto style (nine bend- 
ings and three head-knockings), but respects with 
heavy cannon, big shot and little shot, sword, bayo- 
net, and revolver. I am living on board a Yankee 
steamer, ouilt in Glasgow (Capt. Hawes, all the way 
from Searsport, Me.), under the " flowery " Yankee 
flag, and all above me, and below me, and nearly all 
around me, is desolation, desolation, desolation. The 



150 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

windows of heaven have been wide open for two 
weeks, pouring out nothing but water, water — and 
some say frogs — and all upper JSTorth- China appears 
to have broken loose, and to be flowing down here 
in mud, straw, bamboo, millet, sorghum, and other 
crops, etc. The Grand Canal has broken loose, and 
is pouring in the Yellow Hiver, if not into the Yang- 
tze. Houses, mud and straw built, are tumbling 
down by the thousands. "Whole villages are swept 
away, and all the inhabitants drowned. The desola- 
tion of the typhoon I witnessed in Japan is but 
a trifle in comparison with this universal misery. 
Thousands will starve to death, the coming winter, 
if not relieved by the Pekin government, and rebel- 
lion, as in such cases is usual, will probably follow. 

But, I am not solemnly writing history, remem- 
ber, only pencilling, as you see — scribbling; and, 
remember, too, that you print only a rapid traveller's 
journal. Come, go back, then, with me to Chefoo. 
The seventh of August, about midnight, in a big 
rain, we left the " Chefoo Family Hotel," in sedan 
chairs, two coolies only to each, to track three miles 
along the seacoast, by the surf, now rolling, and over 
the then mountain rivulets, to embark for Tien-tsin. 
And such " a ride ! " such " a ride ! " The Lord 
forgive me if I ever again take it at midnight, in a 
rain storm. The steamers that run from Shanghai 
to Tien-tsin (about eight hundred miles) always take 
passengers on board the night before, as they leave 
at daybreak in the morning, to see the islands, and 



ON THE PEIHO RIVER. 151 

to dodge the shallows. "We came up from Shanghai 
to Chefoo in the rolling "Manchu," Capt. Steele, 
from Townsend, Mass., a jolly, rollicking, capital 
fellow, with a fair library on board ; and we came 
up from Chefoo to Tien-tsin in the not less rolling 
" Shantung," with the Maine Capt. Hawes I have 
before spoken of, one of the best sailors in the world, 
and delighted to see one of his own State men 
in this far-off land. The boats of this American 
line are long, thin, shad-like screws, built to run over 
the Yang-tze shallows and the Grulf of Pe-chih-li 
flats and bars, and up the mud of the narrow Peiho 
— charming boats, when the heavens smile, but only 
rocking-chairs when a storm gets up, as it did for the 
long, lean, kut otherwise beautiful " Shantung." A 
fog hid every thing from our eyes, ten feet off. We 
anchored off the bar of the Taku forts. "We shook, 
we trembled, we tumbled, we pitched, we danced — 
but the strong iron chains and the strong anchors 
clasped fast hold of the jocund "Shantung." For 
twenty-four hours, thus, in blissful ignorance of our 
exact whereabouts, we capered, we frolicked, we 
starved — yet, in our starvation, fed the fishes of the 
sea. Storms, however, never last always. The fog 
cleared off, and we found ourselves in the company 
of junk upon junk, waiting for the fog rising, to find 
the mouth of the Peiho. Now, however, alas ! the 
river was all mouth. The whole country was under 
water. The lofty Taku fort embattlements, with 
their ugly-looking Chinese cannon, were not yet 



152 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

drowned out, and taking them for our landmarks, 
we crooked and wound about, and steamed back- 
ward, up, and forward, down, on our way up to 
Tien-tsin, sixty-four miles by water, and twenty-four 
by land. But what navigation ! Our long, lean, 
lank Shantung, as long as the river is wide, would 
be swung by the current right across the river 
banks, and then we would plough into the banks 
with her nozzle, and root off perch after perch of the 
celestial soil. .Ruins were all along the shore. Mis- 
erable inhabitants, abandoning all, were getting into 
junks with hogs, cocks, hens, and other household 
gods, while over the tombs of their' idolized ancestors 
were pouring the wild, wild waters from the broken 
banks of the Peiho and the Grand Canal. Through 
twisting and turning, however, pulling and hauling, 
wading and poling, and by using steam and the 
windlass, our persevering captain managed, in the 
light of a long August day, to reach Tien-tsin, and 
to find all the inhabitants, Europeans and Americans 
as well as Chinese, wailing, if not weeping, over their 
common misfortunes. A Kussian fellow-passenger 
with us, who had been to Hankow to buy teas for 
Russia, not only found his house washed down and 
his furniture destroyed, but teas of his, in warehouse, 
damaged to the amount of twenty thousand dollars, 
or more. 

If I had put much faith in stories and warnings, 
as I came along, since I left home, I never should 
have put foot into Tien-tsin. Only a year ago in July 



ON THE PEIHO RIYER. 153 

the whole European population in the Chinese city 
was swept off by assassination and murder. Eoman 
Catholic priests and nuns were slaughtered without 
mercy, with the French Consul and others, including 
two Eussians. All in the new city, the European 
Tien-tsin, were spared. Mischief-making and re- 
vengeful Chinese leaders had put it into the heads of 
the ignorant Tien-tsiners (four hundred thousand, 
about, is the population of the city) that the Eoman 
Catholics were kidnapping children in their orphan 
asylums, to use their eyes, ears, and the more vital 
or mysterious parts of the human body, as charms, 
philters, potions, spells, to bewitch the Chinese 
and their children. The zeal of these Catholics 
to fill their schools with children, whom thus they 
hoped to make instruments for propagating Christian- 
ity, and uprooting Paganism, lent credence to these 
wicked tales, and the end was the terrible mob that 
destroyed the beautiful little cathedral, the nunnery, 
the hospitals — nay, that rooted up, and rooted out, the 
whole French population in the old Tien-tsin. Others 
were murdered, not Eoman Catholics ; a Protestant 
church in the vicinity was destroyed, and all mission- 
aries, of all denominations, everywhere in North 
China, were put into terrible fright. Chung How, 
then chief mandarin of the city, caused to be paid 
all the French losses, and is now in France, trying 
to propitiate the French people, to save Tien-tsin, 
hereafter, from bombardment, or the French bayonet. 
But into Tien-tsin I came, nevertheless and not- 



154 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

withstanding. "Where others go you can go," is 
reason. If a traveller did not guide his steps by this 
species of logic, rumor would scare him off, often, 
from many an instructive route of travel. Guns, 
guns, guns, however, are here now great guarantees. 
Two French and one British gunboat are now here, 
with American, German, and other gunboats often 
looking in. Fulminating powder, I am sorry to say, 
seems indispensable to secure trade and commerce ; 
and Christianity, guns, and missionaries have to go 
together in China. The steam launch of the great 
British iron-clad, the Ocean, which cannot get within 
fifteen miles of the mouth of the Peiho River, has j ust 
escorted up here, on his way back to Pekin, Mr. 
Wade, the British Minister, and the captain of the 
Ocean invited us to use his launch with him, to 
explore the ruins of the water-covered Tien-tsin. 
We steamed up the river, to the consternation of the 
Chinese junks, where steam never went before, and 
hundreds upon hundreds, if not thousands upon 
thousands, came out from their junk holes, as bees 
from hives, to see what this puffing, snorting, little 
steam devil was doing. A tall Tartar fellow, some 
great mandarin's great man, was lent us, to scream 
the Chinese junks out of our way ; and as we spurted 
and spouted, junks scattered, as fast as pole, or line, 
or current could scatter them. Such an ocean of 
water-craft, such cities of masted craft afloat, such 
acres upon acres of shipping, my eyes never beheld 
before! One traveller playfully reports, "I counted 



ON THE TEIHO RIVER. 155 

a hundred millions of junks, and then stopped." I 
did not count. There was too much to count, and 
too much to see, to waste time to count. The launch 
steamed up to where the Roman Catholic Cathedral 
was. Nothing but the walls are left now and the 
cross, yet golden, on the tower's top. We dropped a 
tear of sympathy beside the graves of the good Sisters 
of Charity, buried near by, and heard a Chinese- 
born Catholic recite who was interred here, and who, 
there. These poor Sisters were flayed alive by the 
infuriated mob ! One saved herself for a while in 
Chinese dress, but her European shoes betrayed her, 
and she was slain, too. The British officers with us 
sympathized earnestly with the captain of the French 
gunboat, who was also his guest. Strange it is, but 
so it is, we Americans, Frenchmen, Englishmen, 
Germans, here, in this heathen land, are all one. 
We have no nationalities not forgotten the moment 
we meet one of our own race, in these remote spots. 
A pic-nic in the launch — a tiffin is the Eastern name 
for a lunch — was given us near the ruins of the 
cathedral, and When that was over, we explored, as 
well as we could in a steamer, the drowned-out 
streets and tottering houses of this unhappy Tien-tsin. 
" Heaven has inflicted this upon us," say some of 
them, " because we killed the God of the Christians." 
Of this country, under water now, of course I can 
see nothing. " Go back," says everybody. " Don't 
go up to Pekin." "You can't get there." "You 
will be fifteen or twenty days in going." " The land 



156 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

route is all under water, all impassable." Never 
were reports louder in traveller's ear, or so discour- 
aging. Nobody could take us in at Tien-tsin. All 
bouses were drowned down, or uninbabitable from 
rain, save tbat of tbe British Consul, whose bouse, 
tbe largest by all odds in tbe place, was filled witb 
tbe Pekin British diplomats and retinue, just then. 
The " Astor House," the famous hotel of the place, 
established by some California Yankee by the name 
of Smith, was washed out — billiard, bar-room, all. 
" Come with us in the gunboat," said Frenchman 
and Englishman, both. " A gunboat is no place for 
a lady." " Go back with me to Chefoo," said the 
captain of the Ocean. " The fact is," I answered, "I 
have come over two thousand miles, from Yokohama, 
in Japan, only to see Pekin ; and if I stay here, I 
shall have to live in a Chinese sampan (a covered 
house-boat, some twenty feet long), and as motion is 
more satisfactory than station, to Pekin I will go." 
" But the Russian courier has just been robbed en 
route from Pekin to our Minister, now at Chefoo," 
said a Pussian Secretary. " The flood is making 
robbers of the hungry Chinese," it was added. Nev- 
ertheless, on, on to Pekin, was the impulse within 
me, and to Pekin I will go, for I do not believe the 
perils held up before me. 



LETTEK XYIII. 

ON, TO PEKIN. 

Arrival at Tung-Chow.— Lodged in a Temple. — Ice in Abundance now. — On to 
Pekin that Eight. — The Gates of Pekin at Sunset. — The Infernal Eoad to the 
Celestial City, in a Mule Cart. — Bump, Thump. — No Getting Out, no Living 
In. — The Sights on the Tung-Chow and Pekin Eoad. — The Wheelbarrow 
Gentry. — Caravans. — First Sight of the Bactrian Camel. — The Great Walls of 
the City after Sunset. — What John Chinaman thinks of an American-dressed 
Woman entering his Capital in an Open Sedan-chair. — Difference of Opinion 
as to Pekin and New York Fashions. — Happy Welcome in the Bussian Lega- 
tion.— A Cossack Porter opens the Great Gates. 

Pekin, August 18, 1871. 

Tung-Chow, one hundred and twenty miles from 
Tien-tsin by water, not eighty by land, was reached 
at noon. This is the port of Pekin, sixteen miles, 
though, and very, very long miles, you will see. Bus- 
sian letters, written in Chinese to Russian agents 
here, secured us excellent lodgment in quite a grand 
temple, where we expected to pass the night. The 
Buddhist priests were as civil as lambs, and gave us 
sacred places to repose in, or to eat ice in, the great- 
est luxury we could have on a hot day. Ice, by the 
way, here is " cheap as dirt." The Peiho and the 
swamps around are all thick ice in winter, and there 
is no luxury like it to an American. Besides, all the 
little animal culae in Chinese waters are thus frozen 
up and frozen out in winter, and you can safely eat 



158 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

ice, when you cannot drink the water. We tumbled 
down our weary limbs, and rested close by the 
Buddhist altars, with all sorts of images over us and 
about us — dragons and other scary devils — but no- 
thing could scare us from sleep, rising, as we had, at 
four in the morning, and roasting, as we had been, 
in crowds of odoriferous Tung-Chow junks with 
hundreds of the population looking on, marvelling, 
where such creatures as we are, came from. These 
Chinese temples, by the way, are curious, but quite 
comfortable structures to live in. The entrance is 
not exhilarating — through the kitchen, and near by 
all the washing utensils, through crowds eating, 
drinking, and smoking ; but when in, there is mag- 
nificence in some temples, certainly in parts of this. 

To Pekin, on to Pekin, however, was yet the 
burning impulse within me, and I was bent, if pos- 
sible, in crossing the only sixteen miles, and on being 
that night in Pekin. At three o'clock they told me, 
" If you go, you can't get into the gates of Pekin to- 
night." " What, not get over sixteen miles," said I, 
" from three o'clock to sunset % " " You will be 
brought up all standing," it was added, " at the 
closed gates of Pekin, and be compelled to sleep on 
the road, in the dirt, and amid the vermin of the 
gateway." " On to Pekin ! " said I ; " on, on to 
Pekin ! " Three carts, the springless ones I have 
spoken of, were hired for me and my traps, and a 
young lady with me, was put in a sedan-chair, carried 
by four coolies. The sedan-chair was loaned me in 



ON, TO PEKIN. 159 

Tien-tsin, and brought up on a sampan; and we 
started for Pekin, the great celestial capital, the 
earthly home of an emperor that Heaven has loaned 
to govern and to bless the millions upon millions 
of mortals in China. 

Some two or three hundred years gone by, some 
emperor of China (plague on him !) took it into his 
head to make a road of granite blocks, some five or 
six feet long by two wide, upon a raised mound of 
earth, over the sixteen miles of distance from the 
port of Pekin to Pekin itself. It was the Appian 
"Way to the Chinese Kome. It was a New York 
Boulevard — a Pennsylvania Avenue, as recently made 
in Washington. But, alas for me, in my mule cart, 
with no springs, the granite-road has not been re- 
paired for two hundred years, or more, and " the Ap- 
pian "Way " has dropped out, and dropped in, to such 
an extent that only a mule could navigate a cart over 
it, or through it. The Turks have nearly such a 
road now, leading to Jerusalem, but no Turk was 
ever fool enough, as are the Chinese, to put carts on 
it! There was just such a road, some years ago, 
between Acquia Creek and Fredericksburg, Ya., 
but the Yirginians were never blockheads enough to 
pave it. I have ridden over corduroy roads in Maine, 
in rough wooden spring wagons ; through black mud 
prairies, in olden times, in Illinois ; over mountain 
passes in Nevada ; but never, never, over such an in- 
famous, infernal hewn granite quarry as this, all 
topsy-turvy. " Bump" that, hit the shoulder, and 



160 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

made me shiver all over. " Thump" that, was only 
the ribs. " Bump," " thump," " smash," " crash," 
that, hit me on the head, and made my eyes sparkle 
like rockets ! Hat off, and then off guard, while fit- 
ting it on again, came another " thump," " bump." 
Hands give out holding on, wrists ache. Whew ! there 
goes my head again, up against the sides. " Let me 
out," says I. Mule nor Chinaman understands Eng- 
lish ! I was afraid to break my legs, if the cart did 
not stop, when I was getting out. Thump, bump — in 
short, it was sixteen long, endless miles of " bump," 
" thump," " smash," " crash," such as the Spanish 
Inquisition only inflicted upon heretics, save only the 
breaking of their bones. I am only jelly, thank a 
good Providence. Every bone is where it was. But 
I would not take another such drive for one hundred 
dollars per mile. 

Emerging from Tung-Chow, where the Russian 
and Mongolian caravans start with teas for Russia, 
on the Siberian route, we first were " stuck " on the 
Broadway of Tung-Chow — a way about ten feet 
broad ! The wheelbarrow gentry — one man wheel- 
ing, on one wheel, two men holding on, steadying 
the burden on either side, and one mule pulling 
ahead — blocked up the great street of Tung-Chow. 
Our drivers and the wheelbarrow men, laden with 
goods for Pekin, bellowed and yelled, and thus 
cleared the wa} r , in part, after near an hour's delay 
in reaching the outer gates of this walled city. The 
sidewalks, a foot or two wide, were high up, and we, 



ON, TO PEKItf. 161 

in the street, were low down, in mud and mire, often, 
there wallowing like hogs. My cart was water-tight, 
and no matter, therefore, for the splash. It was well 
covered, mule and all, and no matter, therefore, for 
the blazing hot sun. Donkeys brayed hard in our 
ears, but no matter for that. The Bactrian camel, 
with his sprawl feet, all the way from the Mongolian 
deserts, obtruded his ugly neck into our presence, but 
no matter for that. Every thing was strange, new, 
and novel ; and if it had not been for tbe tears in my 
eyes, started by the eternal banging of the springless 
cart, the journey would have been delightful. We 
crossed the great dragon bridge, where a French 
general won his hard-pronounced title of duke of 
something. The graves of " our ancestors " were in- 
numerable, and pretty well kept. Temples there 
were, and not a few. Houses lined the road almost 
the whole way, and coolies, and mandarins, and serv- 
ants, and farmers so filled up the road, that it would 
have been hopeless to try to count them. 

At last, when the sun was set, and darkness cov- 
ered the face of the earth, we approached the great 
walls of the great city of a million or two millions 
of people — nobody knows, or seems to know here, for 
the census has not been taken for over fifty years. 
Our servant-pigeon-English interpreter had shot 
ahead before dark, and on announcing, with gravity, 
" great people were coming on, under a Russian 
escort, with Russian protection, bound to the Russian 
Legation " — lo, presto ! the heavy gates were open, 



162 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

and we were let in. All Chinamen, except ours, 
were shut out ; and thus, for the first time in my life, 
I found use in trousers, hat, coat, and shoes, over the 
more natural habiliments of the wiser-clad Eastern 
man — for the first sight of us proved to the gate- 
keeper we were a race of European men, and doubt- 
less, as he thought, Russians. Once in the gates, 
then scenes ensued. The four coolies who had 
brought the young lady's sedan-chair, mile upon mile, 
needed rest, and took it within the gates. "When 
they set down the chair, hundreds upon hundreds 
gathered about it, as if to see a mermaid, with flow- 
ing ringlets, thus gliding through these gates. The 
crowd became first stifling, then earnestly curious, 
not only to see, but to feel of the novelty. They 
were greedy to know what such a funny thing was 
made of — whether of wax, or poplin, or muslin. 
Lanterns went up in all directions ; the crowd in- 
creased, and grew more curiously noisy. I acted as 
policeman, looked amiably terrible, with only an 
umbrella for a baton ; but the umbrella was wand 
enough to keep the peace. I did not much marvel 
over the curious Chinamen. "What would* New York 
think, if a Chinese woman, with her little bits of 
tiny bird-like feet, were dropped down on Broadway ? 
And yet, our ringlets, our flowing frocks, our queer, 
strange top-knots that the world calls bonnets, the 
broad, emblazoned, unveiled face, are more astounding 
to Chinese eyes than the little bird feet of the Chinese 
women are to ours. American women have not 



ON, TO PEKIN. 163 

often enough entered the streets of Pekin to accustom 
the strange spectacle to Chinese eyes. When the 
sedan and its burthen re-started on, the great crowd 
sent up one great jeer, and I did not much blame 
them, though I was glad to be rid of them, and to 
hide in the darkness, now increasing. 

It was five M, nearly two miles, from the gate we 
entered to the Russian Legation, where was to be my 
hospitable home. The American Minister has gone 
to Japan, and General Ylangali, the Russian minis- 
ter, now absent in Chefoo, ordered his house to be our 
home. Through these Hive M, in the now muddy 
streets of Pekin, we were a long time wandering — 
now, in the slough of despond, and now, on the dry 
land. Theatres were on the street side. Story-tellers 
filled the ways, with recitations to the crowds, holding 
lanterns. Shops were brilliantly illuminated. Songs 
from all sides seemed to be pouring out from the 
houses of a happy population. At last, near ten p. m., 
we reached the Russian Legation, in the Tartar part 
of the city, all walled in ; and knocking at the gate 
loudly, we startled up the Cossack porter, and soon 
were welcomed by a hospitable meal, and, what was 
more important to us then, hospitable beds. 



LETTEE XIX. 

THE JOURNEY TO PEKIN. 

How he got to Pekin in a Springless Cart, over a Granite-Paved Imperial Eoad, 
Thirteen Miles long when first made, and passable, now thirty, or more, from 
the Holes in it, and the Crooks to dodge these Holes. — Bones all aching from 
Pounding, but Bone-Pounding Good Medicine at Times. — The Fit-Out for the 
Kiver Peiho Journey in Sampans. — Hospitality of the Tien-tsiners. — Bad "Water. 
— Must Liquor or Tea. — Dead Chinamen by millions, and Graves everywhere 
bad for Wells.— Catalogue of a Peiho Boat Outfit.— The Terrors of the Eoute all 
exaggerated. — The High Water a Help. — Cut across Lots. — The Supplies en 
route. — Beggars. — A not Disagreeable Journey. — All Sleeping Unprotected — 
Kb Keal Perils. — Coolie Comforts. — Sights on the Kiver. — British Manufactures. 
— The Cock keeps Time for the Coolie in the Morning.— Life in a Junk. — Toi- 
lettes there.— The Countless Babies here. 

Pekin, August 18, 1871. 

Eveey bone in me aches. I am black and blue, 
nearly all over ! "What importance, ask yon, per- 
haps, is that to the public ? Why, to keep the pub- 
lic at home, minding their own business, not making 
fools of themselves, as I am, in being pounded and 
pestled here, with muscles aching and brains half 
beaten out ! " Fools go to Pekin, wise men stay at 
home," is my conclusion to-day, after my adventures 
of yesterday, over a Chinese granite-paved road, in a 
springless cart, drawn by a mule, in a straight line, 
two miles an hour — in the crooked line, three or four 
miles (by these holes), but up and down, five or six 
miles per hour. Nevertheless, I feel all the better for 
this pounding internally, though externally I groan 
every step I take. It is good for the torpid liver this 



THE JOUENEY TO PEKIN. 1^5 

climate creates. It stirs up the bile, is superb for di- 
gestion, and capital for the dyspepsia. The best 
medicine we house, home, newspaper-scribbling men 
can take at times, I am sure, is such a stirring up. 
If the Shanghai doctor had given me a Chinese cart 
to ride in, over a Chinese granite road, I should not 
have half died over his boluses, nostrums, and liquid 
concoctions. I feel to-day as if I could eat Pekin up 
in a week, and all this comes, I am sure, from the 
pounding of my flesh and bones. 

Well, come back with me to Tien-tsin. When 
the good European people of this drowned-out city 
heard me crying, u On to Pekin," despite the flood, 
and when they saw the sampan boats, with the boat- 
men all engaged to go, their hospitality, in pity for 
our rashness, became unbounded. The captain of the 
British gunboat Lieven loaned us beds and bedding, 
and gave us a big cask of water, condensed and puri- 
fied by his steam-engine. And, by the way, this is 
no country, this never can be a country for temperance 
men, unless you are born and brought up, from youth 
and childhood, to drinking mud, or water without 
mud, full of little live creatures, that dance about 
so briskly in the well water that you cannot get rid 
of them. All of us Maine-born men here, captains 
of steamboats, and all, abjure water and the Maine 
law. We drink it boiled and flavored with tea ; but 
the pure article, as handed over to us by the Creator, 
never enters our mouths. The fact is, China is so 
dirty, so full of the essence of dead ancestors' bones, 



166 



A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 



that even the wells are impure. Four hundred mill- 
ions of Chinamen, dying generation after generation, 
seem to poison and corrupt all the streams. Hence, 
I was under great obligations to the captain of the 
Lieven for his big beaker of water. But what would 
not I give now, even, for a cupful of pure mountain 
iced water, like that, say, which runs gurgling 
through Salt Lake City, or, that comes trickling 
down from the snowy sides of the mountains of Ore- 
gon. A dollar a cupful would be cheap, very cheap 
to me ; but, nevertheless, I drink, thankful, for the 
manufactured water, in tea, in claret, in porter, beer, 
Rhine wine, or any liquor that can be got, bourbon 
and brandy not excepted. 

Should you like to see the outfit our new Tien- 
tsin friends provided for us, to ascend the Peiho, I 
give it for the benefit of future travellers here : 



Crackers, tins 2 

Sardines, boxes 3 

Strawberries, can 1 

French preserves, cans 2 

Sugar, tin 1 

Tea, tin 1 

Cheese 1 

Pickles, bottle 1 

Vinegar, bottle -| 

Roast turkey, tin 1 

Cold meat, dish 1 

Soup, cans 6 

Condensed milk, cans 2 



Peaches, cans .3 

Candles 6 

Salt, pepper, mustard, can 1 

Cakes, assorted. 

Sponge cake. 

Ice in abundance. 

Ketchup. 

Matches. 

Corkscrews. 

Teapots. 

Towels. 

Napkins. 



with tumblers, cups, saucers, plates, saucepans, pitch- 
ers, soap, wash-basins, and other things too numerous 
to mention, but all useful to new housekeepers, in a 
sampan boat, going, one knew not, how or where. 



THE JOUKNEY TO PEKIN. 167 

The ■ c sack " was more abundant, if possible, than the 
provender (particulars omitted), and if we run hun- 
gry, we could not well run dry, even if we were 
twenty days, as some predicted, in poling or tracking 
up this now turbulent Peiho. Other friends loaned 
us mosquito nets and pillows, and thus provided us 
to meet the outer enemy as well as to supply the 
inner man. ]STo traveller, even up the Nile, could 
have been better supplied for a long journey. 

And it has not been much of a journey after all — 
only four and a half days up to Tung Chow, the head 
of Peiho junk navigation, and a half day more over- 
land, rather over stones, to Pekin ! We paid our cool- 
ies extra to pole hard, track quick, or row with zeal ; 
and the very high water, in lieu of being a disadvan- 
tage, turned out to be an advantage — for we cut 
across lots, here, there, and everywhere, through 
fields of sorghum, by acres of millet, through sesa- 
mum, and castor beans, and Indian corn, so that I do 
not believe we sailed over a hundred miles, though 
the distance by the banks of the river is reported one 
hundred and twenty, from Tien-tsin to Tung Chow. 
"We reached half-way, Ho-si-Woo, in two days and a 
half — the hardest half, though. Our Chinese servant 
boy, who, with his " pidgen English," acted as inter- 
preter, cooked for us, and bought what he could for 
us from the bluffs of the unwashed-out part of the 
country. We bought chickens, but we could not eat 
them, they were so fishy. (They feed them on fish.) 
We had made the nicest of omelets — not with butter, 



168 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

or milk, but with, I fear, the oil of the castor bean, 
or sesamum. " Like'e lice % " our cook interpreter 
boy often asked. I always said "yes;" but don't 
marvel, for the Chinaman ever turns " E " into " L," 
and rice was all he meant. " Bread " was " bled " 
— and I liked " bled " too. Pidgen English, even, is 
hard English to understand, till you have been long 
used to it; but we are becoming accustomed now. 
We paid only fifteen dollars for each sampan boat — 
double, nearly, the usual price — forty-five dollars for 
three boats, with four persons to work and to wait 
in each, and this included every thing, except little 
cwnshaws (presents) in "cash," a cash being some- 
thing like a farthing in value. Wherever we stopped, 
beggars innumerable turned up, or salesmen of eggs, 
grapes, peaches, apples, plums, and other fruits. We 
never stopped off towns or villages at night ; but in 
fields of millet, or sorghum, or sesamum we anchored 
our boats, and slept as well — the hard beds excepted 
— as if we had been in our own homes. Life, how- 
ever, is all trust here. The boats were all open to 
let in the night breezes. The coolies slept and 
snoozed right about us. There were no watchmen 
to protect us. I never carry revolvers in travelling, 
for I think they are more likely, in the rough hand- 
ling they have on such voyages, to kill you, than to 
aid you in killing anybody. All the weapon I had 
was a dagger, a friend insisted upon my taking, for 
some short, quick fight, if one should become neces- 
sary. The Chinese, however, seem to be, in the 



THE JOUKNEY TO PEKIK 169 

main, too honest to steal, when acting as servants 
about you, and too peaceable to fight ; so that every- 
where I have felt myself as safe as if in ISTew York, 
even under lock and key there. We started at day- 
break, and rowed or tracked as long as we could see 
— the poor coolies in water almost all day, but happy 
at night, in their improvised suppers, when rolled up 
in their padded comforters, to sleep ; and they prob- 
ably get not even two dollars from the owner of the 
boat, who gave them this four and a half days of em- 
ploy. From fifteen cents to twenty cents per day is 
coolie boatmen's pay on the Peiho, with the privi- 
lege of working eighteen hours in mud and water, 
and finding one's self. This, however, pretty well 
supplies his wants. Their clothing is cheap and 
sparse— only cotton cloth — and their food is millet 
and fish, when the latter can be got. 

The boat sights we saw on the Peiho were many, 
the land sights few, and they were nearly all in, or 
under water. Many, many junks were floating down 
the rapid current of the river ; some of them, stylish, 
three stories high, with flags, and handsome exte- 
riors, but the great body of them, transports. The 
foreigners' coasting trade ends at Tien-tsin, and the 
native craft is exclusive from thence upward and in- 
ward, and all about. The transportation upward was 
mainly British Manchester goods, with which many 
a junk seemed to be laden. Once we had a lion's 
share of this great trade, and the cotton goods of 
Lowell, and Lawrence, and Lewiston, and Bidde- 



170 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

ford were floating freely upon these waters, for Chi- 
nese consumption, in company with these British 
drills, sheetings, and shirtings ; but now, my Yankee 
manufacturing countrymen have so constructed their 
tariff laws as to destroy all this, and to give the whole 
to John Bull and the Germans. Do not tell me of 
cheaper labor in England ; for, if " that's what did 
it," nobody could compete with the ten cents a day 
Chinese manufacture of their own cotton. Steam 
could be as cheap a workman with us as in England, 
if our Yankee countrymen did not love high duties 
on coal, and fish and potatoes (largely their food), and 
on machinery and the raw material for machinery of 
all kinds. But, whew ! I'm shooting off on a tariff 
tangent ! 

Among the boat sights on a Chinese river is the 
everlasting cock, who is ever kept there to do cock- 
a-doodle-doo in the early morning, and thus to note 
the time, and to wake up the crew. At the cock- 
crow all start from their lairs, and go to work. The 
cocks are probably well-taught cocks — taught only to 
crow when the day is breaking. "With the cock are 
hens, and with the hens, dogs, cats, etc., a whole 
menagerie. Life on a junk is just like life on land, 
with the doors more open, though. We see the Chi- 
nese women making their toilettes, and the men 
combing their own hair, and then binding on their 
long bonghten cues. The longer a cue is in Chi- 
na, the greater li the swell ; " hence, false hair is 
more for sale to men than to women. " I can't em- 



THE JOURNEY TO PEKIN. 171 

ploy you with that cue," said a Russian friend of 
mine, the other day, to a Chinese boy, with a short 
tail. " I have no money to buy more," said the boy. 
" Take that, then, for a fit-out, and turn up grand." 
The boy took the money, and turned up with a tail 
that stretched to the ground. "We see all these toil- 
ette operations going on — combing, washing, braid- 
ing ; and we hear ^-braiding, too — scolding, I 
mean. Never were greater scolds than these Chi- 
nese boatmen seem to be. Their monosyllabic words 
have a terrible ring, when they are mad — short, 
sharp, cutting. There was a row on my boat. A big 
fellow beat .his brother, a lesser fellow. The little 
fellow smothered his rage till we reached a bluff, and 
then ran away ; but the father, in another boat near 
by, ran after him, and though the father could never 
have overtaken the little fellow, by running, yet such 
is the force of parental authority here, over children, 
that only his command from a long distance brought 
back the runaway. The row that then ensued be- 
tween the brothers, the father all the while interfer- 
ing, became so boisterous that I thought it wise to 
show my dagger to keep the peace. I did not un- 
sheath it, only stamped and yelled, and that restored 
order in the boat fleet. 

One of the first things impressing a traveller in 
China is the babies, the countless babies. Mai thus, 
evidently, is not read here, or the new New England 
native American non-propagation creed. " Multiply 
and replenish the earth," in our Bible, is, in the Con- 



172 A SEVEN MONTHS' KUN. 

fucian classics, in another paraphrase, " Beget chil- 
dren, to be sure of having your bones well taken 
care of." " The more sons you have, the better off 
you are in heaven." Girl babies, however, alas for 
the poor things, are deemed rather curses than bless- 
ings, more especially if you have too many of them 
— such curses, that often the little lasses are tumbled 
away to perish — boy babies, never. All the junks 
we passed, or saw, were more or less filled with ba- 
bies — naked babies, mixed up with the cocks, and 
hens, and dogs, and kittens. Fathers were as often 
fondling them as the mothers. This love of babies, 
it is, that makes up the Chinese countless numbers, 
ever populating the land, and forcing the poor often 
to starve, or to live on kitten cutlets and puppy 
steaks. What we saw people eating most of, on our 
boat journey, were watermelons, pretty good ones ; 
a species of cantelopes, that they nibble, as monkeys 
would ; then peaches, that nobody else could eat, 
they are so bad— with onions, onions, onions innu- 
merable. Indeed, the whole population hereabout 
seems saturated with onions and opium. 



LETTEE XX. 

FROM PEKIN. 

The Guide-Books of Pekin.— The "Ji-hia-kieu-wen-kau" and the " Chen-yuen-chi- 
lio."— Three Cities within Pekin, the Manchu or Tartar, Chinese, and Imperial. — 
Shopping in Pekin. — Great Fur Market.— Mongolia, Manchuria, Corea, and Sibe- 
ria Sables, Ermine, etc., etc. — Precious Stones. — Jade. — Greek Chapel on the 
Grounds of the Eussian Legation. — Life among Chinese Eussians. — Catholic 
and Protestant Missionaries in Pekin. — Visit to the Eoman Catholic Cathedral. — 
French Priests and Sisters of Charity. — School for Chinese Children. — Money 
and the Missionaries. — Conflicts between them. — Foreign and Anti-Foreign 
Party in China. — Chinese Efforts to create Prejudice against Christians. 

Pekin, August 20, 1871. 

"When - you first get into a new, great city, yon 
ask for maps and a guide-book. Maps I have none, 
save in a Hong-Kong guide-book, but works on Pe- 
kin are numerous. The " Ji-hia-kieu-wen-kau " is 
before me — one hundred and sixty chapters only — 
four chapters on the beauties of Pekin (I can't see 
them yet ; — it seems to me an infernal hole — no side- 
walks, no gutters, the privies in the streets, in open 
sinks, and the accumulated filth of centuries rising 
up in terrific stenches ; through mud over boots two 
and a half or three feet long) ; — twenty chapters on 
the public buildings (I am going to hunt them up) ; 
eleven, on the palace of the emperor (no outside bar- 
barian like me is ever permitted to enter that sanctum 
there) ; one chapter on a large monastery, containing 



174 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

one thousand one hundred Lama priests ; four chap- 
ters on the Imperial city ; twelve on the Tartar city. 
The Confucian temple has two chapters. Then, 
there are three more on the ten stone drums, three 
thousand years old. As the " Ji-hia-kieu-wen-kau " 
is all in Chinese, reading backward and upside down, 
I fear I shall not profit much by it in my ardent pur- 
suit for knowledge under difficulties in Pekin. " Chen- 
yuen-chi-lio " is another guide-book here, only eight 
volumes ! It tells, not me, but the Chinaman, who tells 
me, that " I can visit the principal objects of interest 
in a month," but even then shall obtain only very 
imperfect ideas ! I have only a week, two weeks at 
the most, for staring, shopping, curio-hunting. "What, 
then, can I see in or about these twenty-five square 
miles, within the walls ? 

My first outstart has been, under the auspices of 
a clever young Englishman, w T ho speaks Chinese suffi- 
ciently — a student interpreter of the British legation, 
preparing himself for future Chinese consulships — 
into the Chinese city. The legations are all in the 
Manchu or Tartar city. There are three cities with- 
in a city — the heart, the Palace, the Castle city, the 
sanctum sanctorum of Chinese autocracy, where the 
Emperor of Heaven and Earth sits and breathes, 
nearly all alone by himself, save with his wives and 
concubines — the Imperial city, this is called. Then 
the Tartar city, where the Manchu or Tartar popu- 
lation reside. Then the Chinese city, the city of the 
Tartar or Manchu-governed Chinese — for the Man- 



FEOM PEKIN. 175 

chus or Tartars, only a few hundred years gone by, 
you may remember, if anybody ever cares to know, 
overflowed the great wall, and then ran over all 
China. "We went a-shopping ! "Where did a woman 
ever go that she did not go a-shopping — that she did 
not want something, and to buy something % I found 
that out, years and years ago, on the Upper Lakes, 
even among the then Pottawotamies, and in Van- 
couver, and in Jerusalem, and in Gibraltar ; every- 
where, the women must go a-shopping. Pekin, I had 
fancied, had not a temptation on earth for shopping ; 
but what a blunder I made the moment I was intro- 
duced into the shops of the Chinese city. This is 
one of the greatest fur markets in the world. Mon- 
golia, Manchuria, and Corea, as well as Siberia, send 
down here their sables, their ermines, their leopard 
"and tiger skins, the white fox, and gray fox, and all 
other species of furs. The climate is fiercely cold 
here in winter, and, fuel being scarce and costly, the 
mandarins and wealthy classes wrap themselves up 
in sables and ermines, while the poorer classes put 
on sheepskins. The market is tempting. Sables, 
the best skins, can be had from five to seven Mexican 
dollars each ; a mandarin's sable robe from two hun- 
dred to five hundred Mexican dollars, often even less ; 
ermine mantelets for about twenty-five and thirty 
dollars, with leopards, tigers, and foxes in propor- 
tion. But "cheating" is a Chinese as well as Euro- 
pean art. The furriers color and dye their sables, 
and who can tell ? Not I. Look out that you don't 



176 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

buy cats in lieu of ermines. I hinted I might buy a 
mandarin sable robe. And now, though the ther- 
mometer is about ninety, I have been enveloped, sur- 
rounded, tormented by furriers ever since, and buried 
up in my rooms table high with all sorts of furs from 
the steppes of Siberia, the forests of Manchuria, and 
Corea, and the deserts of Mongolia. Curios — that 
is, Pekin curiosities — have been rushed in upon my 
rooms, by Chinese, in platoons. " Precious stones," 
such as rubies, sapphires, amethysts, etc., were spread 
before me in abundance. (Don't buy, you are sure 
to be cheated.) Jade, however, seems to be the pre- 
cious stone of China, not much valued with us, un- 
less it be in little cups, but here costly, next to sap- 
phires. The fact is, China, or rather this, the court 
city of China, is getting poor, and is selling out its 
old curios, its sables, etc., etc. I have half a mind 
to turn merchant, and to rush home heavily laden 
with furs for Guntker & Co., and precious stones for 
Tiffany & Co., or Ball & Black. I have no doubt I 
could pay expenses ten times over — but I am going, 
just now, not home, but to the great wall ; and I 
ha^e not yet given up Mongolia and the camel, 
Siberia, the Baikal, and Ural Mountains, and the 
route Europeward, overland, through Asia. Where 
does not a man want go, when he begins to go? 
"What end of the passion for going, when one once 
begins ? . . . 

It is the Sabbath, and, amid Eussian surround- 
ings, with a beautiful Greek chapel near my rooms, 



FROM PEK1N. 177 

I ought to worship in that Greek church, but the 
priests have departed with the ambassador, and the 
chapel is closed. Formerly, a Kussian Archiman- 
drite held possession of this now beautiful spot, who, 
in addition to his duties of ecclesiastic, took care of 
the political interests of Russia ; but in 1859, when 
the new treaties were made, an ambassador, not an 
ecclesiastic, was appointed, with full powers. A 
magnificent establishment was created for him, and 
the priest departed to another part of the city. 
French is our language of intercourse with the stu- 
dent interpreters, dragomans, and secretaries, left 
here ; and, as the Chinese servants speak only Rus- 
sian, not "pidgen English," even, we manage to 
have from them, by pantomime, all we need — with a 
few Chinese words, every day increasing, represent- 
ing the necessaries of life. 

There is an English church, on the English lega- 
tion grounds, near by, where we were invited to go ; 
and there are several Protestant missionaries in Pe- 
kin — but the Roman Catholics had such large estab- 
lishments here, and their history for three centuries 
in China had been so great and brilliant, that I re- 
solved to see them worship on the Sabbath day. The 
distance was nearly three miles, and the service be- 
gan at eight a. m. ; and a fit-out to go anywhere in 
roadless Pekin is so serious a matter — to rally the 
coolies for the chairs, the ponies, etc. — that, no won- 
der, the service was nearly over when we got there. 
The French priests, however, most graciously re- 



178 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN. 

ceived us, and welcomed with warm hearts European 
faces from so distant a region as America, and the 
Sisters of Charity came out in full numbers and 
showed us all parts of their great establishment. 
The Chinese children, some two hundred and fifty 
in number, " all Christians now," were drawn up for 
us to see. Their nice embroideries, as well as their 
spinning and weaving, were shown us. These good 
Sisters seemed to be happy in their isolation and their 
Christian mission — happy in the seed they were sow- 
ing, and the harvest they were reaping, and earnest 
for the propagation of the faith throughout all China. 
The priests wore their hair as the Chinese do, and, 
but for their priestly robes, would be taken for 
Chinese. The Sisters preserve their home Catholic 
costumes. The cathedral itself is a wonderful build- 
ing for such a distance from civilization. The organ 
in it cost some forty thousand dollars here. Many 
Chinese worshippers were about, and the spacious 
grounds seemed to be teeming with Chinese people, 
some of whom were Sisters of Charity, too. 

There is a great conflict now going on in this 
country, not only between the Roman Catholic mis- 
sionaries and the mandarins, but between money and 
the missionaries, Protestant as well as Catholic. 
The almighty dollar feels itself damaged by the ever- 
lasting pressure which the missionaries are making 
upon the Chinese government, and constantly dooms 
them to some bad place. Commerce and religion do 
travel together, but they are often very troublesome 



FEOM PEKIN. 179 

companions. The missionary, especially the Catho- 
lic, asks for a status here, the exterritoriality, it may 
be, of the Consulates, or a sort of imjperium in im- 
perio, which the mandarins refuse to yield. The 
mandarins declare, now, there is scarcely a Chinese 
rascal that does Jiot turn Christian in order to have 
missionary protection for his rascality. The money- 
men live in constant apprehension that these charges, 
and counter charges, and prejudices will lead to an- 
other war. A quasi foreign party, and a thoroughly 
anti-foreign party, exist in China. All think for- 
eigners are over-exacting, overbearing, and insolent, 
in which respect the Chinese are not far from right ; 
but the peace party in China want no more war with 
foreigners. The money-men are for bearing, and for- 
bearing, with Chinese restrictions upon intercourse, 
and trade, and with Chinese prejudices, and igno- 
rance, as long as they can make money, while the 
kingdom of Christianity is not of this world, but is 
aggressive, and full of fight with Buddhism, Lamaism, 
Tauism, and all the religious isms here. 

After the massacre of French missionaries at Tien- 
tsin, Europeans were naturally led to inquire what 
has produced this feeling against Christianity ? And 
this brought about the discovery of a book written 
by a Chinaman in high authority, and circulated by 
mandarins and others secretly. 

Extract therefrom : 

" This religion (meaning Protestant and Catholic both) has 
its headquarters in Italy. It has a succession of Kings of the 



180 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

Church (popes), who assume, in behalf of Heaven, to communi- 
cate instruction. When a king of any of the "Western nations 
succeeds to the throne, he receives his authority to rule from 
the pope. In all important matters the kings receive commands 
from the pope." 

Then follow accounts of the conduct of priests, 
which are worse than any thing described by Maria 
Monk, or ever imagined in the English language. 

" In case of funerals (of Chinamen), this religion's teachers 
eject all relatives and friends from the house, and the corpse is 
put into the coffin with closed doors, both eyes are secretly 
taken out, and the orifice sealed up with a plaster." 

The reason for extracting the eyes is this : 

"From one hundred pounds of Chinese lead can he ex- 
tracted eight pounds of silver, and the remaining ninety-two 
pounds of lead can be sold at the original cost. But the only 
way to obtain this silver is by compounding the lead with the 
eyes of Chinamen. The eyes of foreigners are of no use for this 
purpose." 

The following is probably the reason why the 
Chinamen beat their gongs so furiously in their fights 
with the English and Americans : 

"Foreigners have the art of cutting out paper men and 
horses, and, by burning charms and repeating incantations, 
transforming them into real men and horses. These they use 
to terrify their enemies. They may, however, be dissolved by 

beating a gong, or by spouting water over them •fri 

creating a man, to be the progenitor of the human race, God 
ought to have created him completely virtuous and absolutely 
perfect, and even then there would have been danger that he 
would not be able to transmit his virtues to his descendants. 
Why should He create such a proud and wicked man as Adam, 
and allow him to bring suffering upon his descendants in all 
generations?" 



FEOM PEKIN. 181 

These extracts give but the faintest idea of the 
abuses and misrepresentations of Christianity. Fur- 
ther extracts would be so indecent, or infidelistic, as 
not to bear publication. The object of the work was 
avowed to be " the expulsion of the race human," 
that is, the European species from all parts of China. 



LETTEE XXI. 

FROM PEKIN. 

Paradise in-doors, Tartarus out. — Pekin Holes, Mud, Dust, Dirt. — No Noses in Pe- 
kin. — Sights and Smells. — "Wealthy Chinese. — Sumptuary Laws in China.— Se- 
dan-chairs. — Marriages and Funerals. — "Women of no Account. — Polygamy. — 
"Women's Fashions in Pekin. — Dr. Williams, the Secretary, Bibliophilist, and 
Encyclopaedist. — The Chinese retrograding. — Confucianism losing its In- 
fluence. — Christianity— Roman Catholics, when starting here, teaching the Ma- 
terial as well as the Spiritual. — Conflict of Christ and Confucius. — The Chinese 
Classics. 

Pekin, August 23, 1871. 

In the [Russian legation here, inside, there is 
every luxury or comfort the heart could desire. 
Some ten or twelve acres of inclosure, walls, gardens, 
fruits, flowers, birds, books, horses in abundance to 
ride on, chairs to ride in, etc. ; but outside, in the 
streets and highways, what sloughs, pits, sinks, holes, 
stinks, mud, dirt, dust ! To go out is like going out 
of paradise into Tartarus. The pope, by-the-way, 
nicknamed all these Easterners, when they first 
visited Borne, as from Tartarus; hence, the word 
Tartar, unknown here but in foreign mouths. Nev- 
ertheless, one must go out. There are no roads for 
carriages; hence, no carriages of any kind, except 
that villanous, springless, wooden-axled cart, mule- 
hauled. The Mongolian pony, a furious, fiery beast, 
that turns down his ears and turns up his heels, when 



FROM PEKIN. 183 

you go to mount him, is your pleasant companion. 
You must go with the pony through the streets of 
Pekin, or not go at all, unless you " foot it," and 
the distances in the hot sun now are too great for 
that. "When I came here, the other day, the city 
was all mud, mud — mud, two feet deep, or more — 
and hopeless sloughs in that mud, if you were not 
taught the Pekin arts of mud navigation. JSTow there 
are many dry places, for an August sun has been 
pouring down gome days, and the dust is from one to 
six inches deep in some places, while in others the 
mud is about as bad as ever, and the rivers of un- 
drained water render whole streets impossible to 
cross. For example, I rode a mile to-day under the 
great walls of the Imperial Palace on a raised mud 
sidewalk, dusty now, and so narrow, a Chinaman 
could hardly pass me on horseback, while six or 
eight feet below was a mud river, a monstrous ditch 
twenty feet wide, of mud and water, no mule or pony 
cared to sound or to explore. This mingled dust and 
mud is a strange sight in a city ; but in our own capi- 
tal of Washington, during the civil war, the streets 
often were not unlike those of Pekin ; and even 
now, where the street-builders are working, in the 
upheaved "Washington, or, on the New York new 
avenues, say, things are very Pekin-ese. 

How human beings live by the hundred thousands 
in such a city as this, is only to be accounted for by an 
utter insensibility to sights and smells ; but they don't 
see, and they don't smell. Eyes and noses in China 



184: A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

are, indeed, often as great cnrses as everywhere else, 
big blessings. I should like to dispense with a nose 
till I get back to America, or into Europe, if I could 
then buy it back again ! No sewers, no closets, no 
drains ! No way of letting out of a big city the filth 
in it ! Streets uncleaned for two centuries, save by 
the hogs and vultures ! The poor are unclad and un- 
washed, with skins the water seems never to have 
penetrated, and eyes that are sore — but why pain you. 
to describe ? Imagine the worst of every thing, in 
that way, and that worst is all here. Nevertheless, 
people do live here, and some live magnificently. 
There are some wealthy Chinese. There are many 
wealthy mandarins. The interiors of some of their 
hopeless-exterior-looking dwellings abound in a cer- 
tain species of luxuries, and in a very few comforts. 
What Pekin is, therefore, one cannot see in the 
streets ; and, as a foreigner can only with great diffi- 
culty get into a Chin'ese house, no stranger is likely 
to see more than these streets. There are sumptuary 
laws in Pekin that forbid luxurious indulgence. No 
mandarin ever can ride in a sedan-chair, no matter 
how many buttons he has won — what their color is, or 
what fans he carries, but by special permission of the 
emperor. The sedan-chair is the emperor's preroga- 
tive. Foreigners attached to legations use it as rep- 
resentatives of home majesty, and the " insolence " is 
tolerated from necessity ; but no Chinaman ventures 
upon any thing beyond a cart, save on two great 
days of life, or death — the first, a marriage proces- 



FROM PEKIN. 185 

sion, and the second, a funeral. Lnxnries are al- 
lowed then. The woman, then, the only day of her 
life, rides in a sort of sedan. Hence, now I under- 
stand the commotion made on the night of my enter- 
ing the city with an open sedan and a lady in it. 
These sumptuary laws I speak of, pervade, I am told, 
all Pekin life, and are here especially kept up to 
keep the people as far as possible removed from the 
luxuries of the emperor. They do not exist else- 
where in China, only in this court city, where the 
emperor is. The mandarin has his especial sable 
robe, or ermine adornments, in winter. As for the 
women, they seem to be of no account here, save as 
mothers of children. The Chinaman takes as many 
wives as he can support — the emperor has them by 
the hundred — but the first wife is the real wife, the 
only mistress of the establishment, and the others are 
only her handmaids about the establishment, and 
they all obey her. The Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob 
mode of life is the life in China yet. They have not 
advanced, in this respect, a step beyond the patri- 
archs. "What a field this would be for Mrs. Cady 
Stanton and the other bright, strong-minded ladies 
who, in America, are reforming the world — for 
woman is not of the least account here, save to be 
pretty and well painted with white powder and ver- 
milion, in hair long, skewered, and well glued, so that 
a gale of wind cannot disturb it — the whole standing 
upon two little props, looking like birds' claws done 
up in sandals, and here called " feet." Alas, women's 



186 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

fashions are equally foolish everywhere! I bet in 
Japan, once, the woman's hair was her own, and was 
beaten in the bet. I wonld not bet on any thing 
abont woman in China now, from her head to her 
foot-claws — from her long nails to the color of her 
face. Copper, I shonld have called her color; but I 
see so many powdered and vermilion faces, that I am 
not certain, now, the woman race is not white, with 
red cheeks, or cheeks a little reddened. Above the 
brows is often painted red, with the eyelids, too. 

The British and French legations have quarters 
almost as luxurious as the Russian — the British, more 
ground. The Russian ground was a concession in 
olden times, the fee being in the Russian government ; 
the British hire a grand Chinese palace, with right of 
lease-renewal, at about fifteen hundred dollars annual 
rent; the Trench say, the repairs they have made 
and make upon their palace pay the rent. The 
American legation is in the house and on the grounds 
of Dr. Williams, the secretary of legation and inter- 
preter here, who bought and built all for himself. 
But for him, the American minister would have no 
place fit for a dog to live in. The houses and 
grounds are handsome now, and quite spacious. 
This Dr. S. Wells "Williams, by-the-way, who came 
in from his summer quarters, " the hills," some six- 
teen miles off, to see me, spent the day with me, and 
is one of the most remarkable men I ever met with. 
He is the American indispensability, and the Ameri- 
can institution in China. He has lived here some 



FROM PEKIN. 187 

thirty odd years, speaks Chinese fluently, and proba- 
bly knows more of China than most of the Chinese. 
He is a regular Bibliophilist, a Thesaurus, an Ency- 
clopaedia, and seems to know every thing. Just now 
he is making a Chinese-English dictionary, on which 
he has been at work some years, and which he hopes 
to finish in a year. JSTo topic turned up in our long 
conversation, whether of theology, cosmography, 
philology, or cosmogony, that he did not seem to 
know all about, and without the least ostentation of 
knowledge. And then he was as great on furs, sables, 
and fur-bearing animals, and where they come from, 
and on precious stones, as on the ologies. He went 
with Commodore Perry, as translator, to open Japan, 
and he speaks Japanese. What a pity such " books " 
have to die, and one cannot always have such living 
books with them, instead of being compelled to turn 
over leaves, and weary one's eyes with letters ! Dr. 
"Williams was a printer by trade, came to Macao from 
Utica, New York, as a printer, and for some years 
published and edited the Chinese Repository in Can- 
ton. Dr. Hepburne, of Yokohama, Japan, is another 
like man— -an American indispensability there — who 
links and connects us with all we know of Japan. 
He, too, is making a dictionary — a Japanese-English 
dictionary. Of course, men thus long living with the 
native races here, become sympathetic with them, ex- 
cuse them, palliate their blunders, errors, faults, even 
their crimes. Dr. Williams relies npon the Bible, 
and only upon the Bible, to reform China. The 



188 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

race has made all the progress possible, he adds, 
without Christianity, and is now retrograding be- 
cause some of the principles of the Bible, which Con- 
fucius preached as well as Christ, are fading away, 
or being disobeyed. He thinks Christianity is mak- 
ing as rapid a progress here as conld be expected, 
when first brought into conflict with the Buddhism 
and Confucianism of a thousand ages, and that it is 
now laying the foundation, by-and-by rapidly to go 
ahead. I do not see it, though he does. It seems to 
me, and such is the opinion of most foreigners here, 
outside of the missionary establishments, that if the 
missionaries would teach more science, the arts, etc., 
the quicker they would reach the Chinese soul, and 
convert it to Christianity. The Bible, and only the 
Bible, however, is what the missionary clings to, 
though some of these missionaries are, in some re- 
spects, learned men. The Bora an Catholics, when 
first here, started as teachers of things material as 
well as spiritual, and they accommodated the spir- 
itual to the material. Matthew Bicci, an Italian 
Jesuit, who came to China about the year 1600, put 
off the priesthood garb, and put on that of the Con- 
fucian literati. He studied their sacred classic books, 
and became master of Confucius and Mencius. 
Schaal, a German Jesuit, made himself an astrono- 
mer in Pekin. Yerbiest, another German Jesuit, 
made logarithms, and cast guns for the Chinese. 
But, in time, the Catholics fought with the Chinese 
worship of ancestors, the system of polygamy, etc., 



FKOM PEKIN. 189 

and then the conflict of Christ and Confucius be- 
came so sharp that both the Jesuits and Dominicans 
were expelled, even after converting no small portion 
of China to Christianity. 

I have been reading, now, for some weeks, trans- 
lations of Confucius and Mencius, and of all other 
translated classics I could get hold of — these classics, 
with the commentaries upon them, are legion, filling 
great libraries ; and I am in a great state of mental 
confusion over them. Only such scholars as Dr. 
Williams and the British minister, Mr. "Wade, with 
whom I have made many talks, seem to comprehend 
the mysteries in them — but I am convinced they 
would be very profitable studies to us Americans, so 
far as they teach home-government, family-govern- 
ment, self-government, obedience to parents, sacrifice 
of self to parents, etc. Morals are the foundation of 
politics with the great Chinese philosopher. " How 
can a mean man serve his prince? (asks Confucius). 
When out of office, his sole object is to attain it, and 
when he has attained it, his only anxiety is to Tceep it. 
In his unprincipled dread of losing his place, he will 
readily go all lengths." How much suggestion in 
that for the American mind, just now ? 

But how I am wandering, and scribbling, and 
philosophizing, and on what dry topics ! Enough for 
to-day. 



LETTEE XXII. 

THE TEMPLES IN PEKIK 

Tho Temples in China.— Confucius and the Lama. — The Lessons of Confucius.— His 
Influence in the Government of the Chinese. — The Sages of China. — Tablets to 
the Disciples of Confucius. — The Competitive Students. — The Despotism and 
Democracy of China. — The Diagrams. — The Tang and the Yin. — Intelligence of 
the Chinese.— The Lama Buddhist Temple. — Mongolian Priests. — Contrast of 
the Lama and Confucius Temples.— A Chinese Mandarin's House. — Tang was 
his Name. — Sensation in the Streets. — The Interior of the Mandarin's House. — 
The Wife and Handmaids. — Description of the Wife's Dress. — Eefreshments. — 
Walks on the Eoof of the House. 

Pekin, August 24, 1871. 

To-day I have made two grand visits — one, to the 
living temple of the great Confucius ; another, to the 
grand temples of the Buddhist Lamas, who here rep- 
resent the Grand Lama of Thibet and the Lamas of 
Mongolia. I approach the temple of Confucius as I 
once approached Jerusalem, or the Areopagus, or 
the Pantheon, or "Westminster Abbey, or the Sor- 
bonne. It is the temple of knowledge in China, the 
light, the only light, where no Bible is read. Con- 
fucius was born about 550 b. c, and from the day 
of his death, seventy-three years after, his books have 
ruled the kings, the mandarins, the people of China 
— now about one-third of the human race. Chris- 
tianity and Confucianism are yet dividing the empire 
of the world. Over two thousand years, Confucian- 
ism has kept together, under stable government, now 
the oldest nation on earth, and one which has sur- 
vived all the empires and wrecks of the European 



THE TEMPLES IN PEKIN. 191 

world. Hence, one must go up to the temple of 
Confucius, as one goes up to the Areopagus, if not 
to Mars Hill and Jerusalem. Confucius was wiser 
and greater than Aristotle, or Plato, or Cicero, or 
Seneca. His political and social lessons, and obedi- 
ence to them, have saved China from the wreck and 
ruin of countless other nations in Asia, Europe, and 
Africa. . 

There is nothing very remarkable in this temple 
of Confucius to look at. The association is the only 
inspiration. The hall is lofty, the roof supported by 
large teak pillars from southwestern China. The 
front is a broad and handsome marble terrace, with 
balustrades, ascended on three sides by seventeen 
steps. The inscription on the tablet, in Chinese and 
Manchu, is : 

" The Tablet of the Soul of the most Holy Ances- 
tral Teacher, Confucius." 

Tablets of other four distinguished sages — Men- 
cius, Tseng-tsi, Yen-hway and Tze-sze — are placed, 
two on each side ; and six more, celebrated men of 
the school, occupy a lower position on the side. On 
the walls are handsome tablets in praise of Confucius. 
Each new emperor presents one in token of venera- 
tion for the sas;e. Some of these are : 

" Of all Men born, the Unrivalled." 

"Equal with Heaven and Earth." 

"Example and Teacher of all Ages." 



192 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

On each side of the court is a range of buildings 
where there are tablets to more than a hundred cele- 
brated scholars. On the east side are seventy-eight 
virtuous men, and on the west fifty-four learned men. 
Then, there are rows of tablets, or monuments, with 
the names of the successful competitive scholars, 
who, at the triennial examinations in Pekin, win 
their honors on topics given to them, when shut up 
for three days, with only pencil and ink for compan- 
ions, all books and all other companions excluded. 
These tablets look as if they ran back for three or 
four hundred years ; but the names of those over a 
century old cannot be deciphered, as time has ob- 
literated the engravings made of them in the marble. 
What better shows the vanity of human pursuit, of 
ambition, of the love of glory ? It reminded me of 
the Consular tablets on the Capitoline Hill of Rome 
— but what vanity is it all ! 

Nevertheless, these competitive examinations and 
contests have the widest and greatest influence over 
the Chinese Empire. They open the doors of pro- 
motion to the very poor as well as to the rich, and 
they make every humble person feel — " I can be a 
mandarin ; " "I can have the government of a prov- 
ince ; " "I can see, kneel by, and advise the em- 
peror ! " They convert the absolute, hereditary, 
and otherwise uncontrollable, supposed-to-be heaven- 
given despotism into an educated democracy. Learn- 
ing must govern — not blockheads and ignorance. A 
man must know something, in order to rule. The 



THE TEMPLES IN PEKIN. 193 

government, in short, is put into the hands of the 
intelligent classes — such intelligence as it is! But 
what an extraordinary species of intelligence ! What 
strange studies ! What curious themes ! In our 
barbarous ages, our European metaphysical fathers 
disputed long and loudly, " whether angels could see 
in the dark," or, " whether you could pass from one 
point of space to another without going through the 
intermediate points ; " but here, the studies are of 
the eight diagrams of Fo-hy, or of the Yang and Yin, 
the active and passive principle of the mundane egg, 
etc., etc. The knowledge is great ; the scholarismis 
wonderful — but, cui oono? It runs no railroads, 
raises no telegraph poles, creates no great power, 
military or naval, cleans no streets, makes no sewers, 
diffuses no practical knowledge ! Once more, the 
whole system proves that reading and writing are 
not knowledge, and books are not knowledge. Even 
the unreading and unwriting may, by mere observa- 
tion and practice, know far more than those who 
thus read or write. 

But the competition, the study, the ambition, do 
reflect a wonderful amount of intellect, and a certain 
species of intelligence, among all the common people 
of China. Almost all the people look bright, active, 
and earnest. Their self-discipline is astonishing. 
They work with patience and assiduity, and seem- 
ingly discharge all their duties with content. None 
learn faster, if any so fast, by mere imitation. Their 
capacity in that respect is amazing. Their existing 



194: A SEVEN MONTHS' KUN. 

manufactories show what they could do, if they had 
the machinery and the capital. As writers, our dip- 
lomats find their mandarins hard to cope with. As 
servants, they are unequalled the world over. The 
Chinese waiter is about the only one in the world 
who can guess, by instinct, as it were, what you 
want, so that, though you have not a word for inter- 
course, you can get along pretty well by the fingers 
and eyes alone. 

But, near as I am to the temple of Confucius, 
where there is not a god, nor an idol, nor an altar, I 
must not forget the large Lama Buddhist temple — 
with its thirteen hundred or fifteen hundred Lama 
Mongolian priests. Some three hundred of them 
there receive instruction in metaphysics, or the doc- 
trine of " the empty nature " — that is, the non-ex- 
istence of matter, being, and things, such topics as 
the crazy French revolutionists discussed, earnestly, 
in the days of Yoltaire. Others study other things 
— one hundred and fifty of them medicine — but Mon- 
gols, or Thibetans, unlike the Chinese, do not study 
overmuch. The Mongolian Lama priests we saw, in 
their yellow robes, as thick as bees in a hive, did not 
seem bright enough to study any thing. Indeed, 
they are not expected to do much, if any thing, but 
to keep their temples in order, and this they do bad- 
ly. The idols are dirty ; the walls are ragged ; the 
floors are dusty. The Chinese Government suj^ports 
all these priests, to keep the Mongolians, whose re- 
ligion they represent, in order. They buy their priests 



THE TEMPLES IN PEKIN. 195 

to keep quiet, and so keep their people quiet. I 
should weary you by describing here all the halls, 
altars, cypress trees, hundreds of years old, and a 
seventy-five feet high wooden Buddha, with steps in- 
side of him. Understand, then, it was a " mighty 
big" concern, take it altogether, greater in extent 
than the Capitol in "Washington (but only one story 
or a story and a half high) ; bigger than the New 
York Central Park fountains, bridges, and lake. 
Beautiful carpets, made far away off in the interior, 
somewhere, were on the floor. There were pictures 
all the way from Thibet, with all sorts of odd repre- 
sentations everywhere, wearying one's eyes to look 
at them, and confusing the senses to comprehend. 

The contrast of these neighboring temples — the 
one to the yet living principles of Confucius, and the 
other to the idol Buddha — was what most impressed 
me. In the Confucian temple were active, lively, 
hard-studying, ambitious Chinese ; in this Mongol 
Lamasery of boyish priests, were half-dead men, 
walking on legs, but without any inspiration in 
them, living on bread, and fruits, and meats, as ani- 
mals live, but living only to consume the fruits of 
the earth (nati consumere fntges). 

But I am scribbling with dulness on priests and 
scholars. Paulo majora canemus. Let us sing on 
women, and houses, and homes, and visits, and style 
and fashions. Through the negotiations of some of the 
Chinese student interpreters in the British Legation, 
we were introduced to-day, with two ladies, into the 



196 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

very heart of a Chinese mandarin's house — Yang 
was his name — and we saw there what men seldom 
or never can see in Pekin. To give eclat to our out- 
fit, we started from the Eussian Legation with two 
sedan-chairs, a lady in each, and sixteen coolies in 
stylish livery to carry them, with three European 
cavaliers, two of them speaking Chinese and English, 
to escort them, and two outriders on horseback, in 
grandee livery, to lead off and follow after the escort. 
Pekin, of course, opened its eyes, as such a cavalcade 
went through its streets. Mule-men, market-men, 
cart-men, shopkeeper-men, all stopped to comment 
on the show. We were crowded through two city 
gates, from the Tartar into the Chinese city, where 
the dust was terrible, the pavement worse, and the 
crowd, if possible, worse still. We entered a very 
narrow and most unimposing street, that led to our 
mandarin's rather palatial establishment. The man- 
darin, to be sure, was not a student mandarin, who 
had studied his way up on " the essence " of things, 
and won his buttons by his books — for he was a rich 
banker, who had won his way up by dollars, or Chi- 
nese taels (sycee), and who bought his rank and title 
therewith. The mandarin met us at the entrance, 
escorted us through a narrow passage into a court- 
yard, where were dogs, and monkeys, and flowers in 
pots. Passing over the court-yard, we met, in a re- 
ception room, the wife, with her handmaids. There 
were Chinese chairs and tables in this room, and we 
were invited to sit down. The wife and her hand- 



THE TEMPLES IN PEKIN. 197 

maids, of whom there were three or four, were elabo- 
rately painted, in powder and vermilion. The under 
lip, about an inch wide in the middle, was painted a 
bright crimson. The hair of the wife No. 1 was 
drawn up in a peculiar knot, projecting behind 
some six or eight inches, with gilt and jade hair- 
pins fastening a white lily on the right side. Her 
ear-rings were of jade, and pearl, and gold. Eings 
of the same kind were on her fingers. The feet 
did not seem to be over three inches long — so short, 
that she could scarcely stand or step, and in the end 
we found she could not go up-stairs. The under 
dress was of blue satin, close to her lower limbs, 
and elaborately embroidered. The upper dress 
was a lighter blue silk blouse. On her arms were 
heavy gold and precious stone bracelets. "Wife 
No. 2 was a Manchu woman, with a different head- 
dress, and an inferior style generally. "Wife No. 1 
did all the honors. The others stood, while she sat. 
All were painted, even a daughter of fourteen or fif- 
teen years of age. "We were ushered, then, into the 
mandarin's study and bedroom, where tea was served 
us. Many European scientific things were around. 
The master of the house was fond of electricity, and 
kept a battery to light his pipe. He was a photog- 
rapher, too, and took portraits of wife No. 1, in her 
grandest state dress. This so attracted our curiosity 
that we asked to see it, and out it came — costly, 
magnificent, emblazoned with gold, of crimson satin, 
elaborately embroidered, and with an over-mantle 



198 A SEVEN MONTH'S' RUN. 

more showy still. The head-dress was a sort of I 
crown, six or eight inches high, on a gold wire foun- j 
dation, with turquoise, rubies, and the like orna- 
ments interwoven. Numerous pearl pendants hung 
below the chin. The pearls were magnificent, and j 
cost — how much, who can tell ? 

We were then escorted into another room, where i 
refreshments were given us, served in European ' 
style, with Chinese cakes and liquors. The children 
were then exhibited to us — the children of different ! 
mothers, but they all seemed to live harmoniously ! 
together. The No. 2 and No. 3 wives did not sit j 
down, as did wife No. 1, but seemed content and J 
happy to look on. There were a melodeon, and many i 
books. Other rooms were then shown us, and as we • 
became weary of them, we were taken into other ! 
court-yards, grottoes, over little bridges, spanning I 
little lakes, with flowers everywhere about us, and j 
grapevines, and amid little trees. Then, we were j 
taken on to the roof of the house, where were pretty ! 
walks and promenades, with cool, refreshing breezes, ! 
contrasting favorably with the heat of the rooms be- | 
low. All these places were within one wall, and j 
this wall overtopped every point of view from the ' 
street and the neighborhood. I was much gratified 
with this inner view of a Chinese establishment, the j 
like of which is seldom or never given to man, when ; 
alone, to look upon. "Wealth thus exists, we see, 
even amid the dirt and dust of the streets of Pekin, 
and Fashion is as omnipotent and droll here as in i 
Paris or New York. 



LETTEE XXIII. 

THE GOVERNMENT OF CHINA. 

The Great "Wall of China.— The Overland Koute to St. Petersburg.— Turned back by a 
Mohammedan JEmeute. — Now too late or too early in the Season. — Can tele- 
graph from here to New York in twelve or sixteen Days. — The Government of 
China. — Confucius a sort of Ben Franklin or Thomas Jefferson. — No Hereditary 
Aristocracy. — Public Sentiment governs here as in Great Britain and the 
United States. — Kailroads and Telegraphs resisted by Superstitions, to be 
overcome. — China making Great Preparations for War. — Casting Cannon, etc. — 
China retrograding. — Corruption the Cause. — Mandarin Titles bought and 
sold. — The Literati Mandarins now dishonest. — The Boy Emperor, fifteen 
Tears of Age. — His Future not promising. — The Dowager hunting a Wife for 
Mm.— The Pekin Gazette. 

Pekin, August 25, 1871. 

One of the dreams of my life has been to go to, 
and to stand upon, the great wall of China. There 
were certain seven wonders in the world to be seen 
in the geographies of my boyhood, and the great wall 
was one of them. I have " done " the Pyramids, the 
Colossus of Rhodes, and the other wonders, I believe ; 
but the great wall is yet to be " done " before I 
am done travelling, or there would be no content. 
Hence, I am preparing a start for the wall. "What 
grieves me most, though, is, that there, I shall be 
compelled to retrace my steps, at least for a thou- 
sand miles, back to Shanghai, before I can again get 
on a new track. I have long been resolving upon 
the Russian overland route, homeward, through the 
Desert of Gobi, on camels, to Kiakhta, the border 



200 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

town of trade between the caravans of China and 
Russia — thence to Irkutsk, the Baikal, the Ural 
Mountains, the Yolga, and on, home, via Novgorod, 
Moscow, and St. Petersburg ; but there is fighting 
going on somewhere, thereabout (in China), or a terri- 
ble fright, because of the Mohammedans and their 
hordes inroading just now, so that I am partially 
talked out of it, though more scared out of it by the 
approaching cold weather. The distance across the 
two continents, Asia and Europe, is some five thou- 
sand miles, or more — one thousand miles of it nearly 
in China, where every thing is in disorder ; but in 
Eussia there is a strong government, with horse-posts 
everywhere, so that I think I could manage to go in 
safety, if once there. There is a railroad, too, one 
thousand miles long, from St. Petersburg via Mos- 
cow, through Novgorod, on to Kasan, and probably 
further now, as the Russians are building a Pacific 
railroad like ours, which will probably be driven 
through Siberia and Manchuria in about ten years. 
The work is not so difficult as ours. Already they 
have a telegraph line across the continent, the whole 
length. 

But, alas, I must give up the dream of going over 
all this, and of thus going through the heart of Si- 
beria, and so, well comprehending Russia. It is both 
too late and too early in the season to start on such a 
journey. The cool winds already coming from the hills 
overlooking Pekin, and the cooler winds soon to come 
from the mountains of Mongolia, admonish me that 



THE GOVERNMENT OF CHINA. 201 

if I were to start now, I should be fighting floating 
ice in Siberia on every river I should be crossing 
there, not strong enough to hold horses, and yet ob- 
structive enough to forbid the passage of rivers in 
boats. A month later the journey could be made on 
solid ice, and in good sleighing, the most of the way, 
with the thermometer some thirty or forty degrees 
below zero, to be sure ; but what is that to a man 
"raised" on the Androscoggin, or Kennebec, in 
Maine, or that fears the Shanghai thermometer at 
ninety far more than forty degrees below zero in Si- 
beria ? The start for this Siberian journey should be 
made from Pekin in May, I see — the summer route, 
with clear rivers ; or in October — the winter route, 
with frozen rivers to cross. It is hard, rough, long, 
but nothing killing in it, on a fair start, under good 
Eussian protection. Two or three Americans have 
been over it — some Englishmen — and the Eussian 
couriers from St. Petersburg to Pekin go every 
month, or oftener, if necessary. St. Petersburg can 
be reached from here in twelve or sixteen days, by 
telegraph, from Kiakhta, the first Eussian town. I 
could telegraph home, I think, from here in ten days 
now, and from Shanghai directly. 

Before I leave Pekin I must try to convey to you 
my impressions, or rather g%iesses, of what this Gov- 
ernment is ; for, after all, such travellers as I am, run 
on haphazard — only guessing. No American out 
of China, however, has had higher or better sources 

of conversational information than I have had, and 
10 



202 ^ SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

am having. The British and French, as well as the 
Kussian legations, have been as kind as possible to 
me with their attaches and interpreters. Our Ameri- 
can Dr. Williams, too, I think, is better informed 
than any other man in China, though he looks at all 
things with a Christian missionary eye, and through 
Puritan spectacles, a little spotted with Chinese 
pebbles. The Government, as I have hinted, seems 
to be a democratic despotism, and hence, perhaps, 
the secret of its old age and long preservation. 
Confucius was a sort of Thomas Jefferson or Ben 
Franklin. He laid down great practical democratic 
principles, and they have ruled emperors and manda- 
rins hundreds and hundreds of years. Confucius 
created a public opinion and a system of precedents 
that no despotism could ever safely ignore. Then, 
the common people, through their instructed*manda- 
rins, guide, and overawe, if they do not always sway, 
the emperor. He is afraid of the people, and the 
mandarins are afraid of the people, too. There is as 
much a public opinion here to be respected, as in 
Great Britain or the United States. ]STo hereditary 
aristocracy of any kind exists. No mandarin can 
transfer even his buttons, to say nothing of his post, 
to his children. "When these mandarins are made gov- 
ernors of the provinces of China, their power is quite 
absolute ; but the emperor is omnipotent, of course, 
over them. The provinces are like our States, with 
certain provincial rights that mandarins must respect 
when sent there. Hence, the Government is nowhere 



THE GOVERNMENT OF CHINA. 203 

absolutely absolute — that is, with safety to itself. 
Intelligent mandarins would like to build railroads 
and telegraphs, it is thought, but they dare not, it is 
believed, as yet. No mandarin feels potent enough 
to advise the emperor to run a railroad over the 
graves and through the graveyards of Chinese re- 
vered and worshipped ancestors. The trouble in 
erecting telegraph poles is, that a superstitious China- 
man believes (and all are more or less superstitious) 
that these poles will interfere with the Fung-jShuey, 
" wind and water," a species of geomancy, or a be- 
lief in the good or ill luck attached to particular local 
situations, that the poles may have struck. Geo- 
mancy is an occult science here, and professors study 
it, and tell you the plan for a house, or a grave, 
where the Fung-Shuey will bless it. To such an ex- 
tent is this superstition existing in Pekin, that when 
the Catholics built their cathedral higher than the 
imperial wall, the wall was raised higher than the 
cathedral, to ward off the Catholic Fung-Shuey, To 
ride over such superstitions, rough-shod, is what even 
an intelligent mandarin does not like to do. Hence, 
circumstances and events must control the erection 
of telegraphs, so indispensable for the unity of a great 
empire like this, and not force. An event has just 
now occurred which will hasten the erection of tel- 
egraphs. The grand Pekin Council of Scholars 
awarded two competitive prizes to two Cantonese 
scholars, the highest honors of the empire. The 
news was sent from Shanghai by sea telegraph to 



204: A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

Hong-Kong, and reached Canton, days before the 
news could go overland. The Cantonese were as- 
tounded, and discredited the intelligence until the 
long-looked-for Pekin official Gazette came overland 
and confirmed it. Then there was wonder and mar- 
vel over that intelligence, and all China, from north 
to south, is asking " if it will do to give foreigners the 
means of more rapid intercourse with the exterior of 
our empire than we ourselves have." Interest, and 
trade, and commerce, I think, will soon dispose of 
that Fimg-Shuey, and give China the telegraph. 
" The graves of our ancestors," scattered over every 
little field in China, will be more difficult and dan- 
gerous to be dealt with than this Fung-Shuey / but 
" the graves of our ancestors " will have to go at 
last. All these opinions, nay, superstitions, in a 
freeish sort of country like this, have, however, to 
be respected, even by emperors and mandarins. 
"We have opened their great river, one of the greatest 
rivers in the world; and, by steam, we Americans do 
nearly all the coasting trade there with Shanghai. 
Mandarins now prefer our boats to their junks to 
travel in. Europe and America have taught China- 
men how to cast cannon and to make rifles. Their 
factories, under our auspices, are almost equal to 
ours. Their rifle is as good as our Springfield rifle. 
Their ships of war are now putting on formidable 
fronts. If England again comes into conflict with 
China, it will not be so easy a conquest as in her two 
last Chinese wars. 



THE GOVERNMENT OF CHINA. 205 

Why, then, you ask, perhaps, is such a people 
retrograding % — for here, in Pekin, amid the ruin of 
roads, and bridges, and palaces, and the wreck of al- 
most every thing, this retrogradation is too visible. 
China is not what it was three hundred years ago, with 
as much civilization, perhaps, but far less material 
progress. The answer to the question propounded 
here is a most important one to us Americans — for 
corruption is the sole cause of Chinese retrogradation, 
and is, if not corrected, certain to lead to the down- 
fall of the empire, and its subjugation to Europeans 
or Americans. I have pointed out, in another let- 
ter, how rich men buy mandarin honors. That does 
not give a mere rich man office, but it does give him 
rank, station, and social position, and the common 
people are angry that even thus their scholar compet- 
itive system should be interfered with. As yet, it is 
believed, though often suspected to the contrary, that 
the examination of the scholars for the mandarin 
places is honest ; and hence, corruption may not have 
penetrated these schools. But now, even these scholar 
mandarins have ceased to be honest. They go to 
their provinces, and they " squeeze " the rich and 
the poor, and extort all they dare. They buy silence 
in the councils of Pekin with the money they extort 
from the people, and thus corruption in the provinces 
works corruption in the capital, till all, more or less, 
have become corrupt, and there is no confidence or 
honesty anywhere. Confucius terribly rebukes all 
this in his legacies ; but Confucius is losing his hold 



206 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

on the great mandarins of the empire. The empire, 
just now, is in the hands of a regency, with the em- 
press-dowager and Prince Kung at the head — with 
a boy of only fifteen training to be emperor. Upon 
that boy, whether he watches or not the corruption 
of the empire — whether he puts it down, or permits 
it to run — hangs not only the empire itself, but prob- 
ably his own destiny, as well as his dynasty. The 
boy is reported from the palace as not very promising 
for the future. And how can a boy be trained for 
empire in such an exclusion, seeing nobody but the 
few, hearing only what they choose to tell him, and 
with women and eunuchs, in the main, surrounding 
him ? The wild, fierce Manchu blood that conquered 
the empire is running to water within the walls of 
the palace, and amid the luxuries of the palace ; and, 
unless the boy turns out to be a wonder, the dynasty 
will be tumbled over for a stronger one, as has hap- 
pened several times before in the history of China. 

Great efforts are being made to find a wife Eo. 1 
for the boy emperor — and he can have as many as he 
pleases, after !N"o. 1. The pretty girls, from hun- 
dreds and hundreds of miles, have been sent up to 
the capital as patterns for an empress ; but his 
mother, the empress-dowager, has not yet found out 
a wife for him. (She picked out one, who was taken 
to the capital to be educated a year for an empress, 
but during that year she died.) Boys and girls in 
China have nothing to do with the selection of their 
own wives. They seldom see, the husband his wile, 



THE GOVERNMENT OF CHINA. 207 

or the wife Her husband, till the day of marriage. 
The emperor, even, has got to take what they give 
him ; but if E"o. 1 does not suit or satisfy, No. 2, 3, 4, 
5, 6, and so on, can be handmaids. Some of the rich- 
est provinces have just been levied upon, however, to 
furnish silks, satins, and embroideries for some grand 
nuptial ceremony soon to take place in Pekin. The 
richest silk province respectfully protests, I see by 
Jhe Pekin Gazette, against the silk levy made upon 
that province. The mandarin writes the requisition 
cannot be complied with, without trouble there ; and, 
what is stranger, the Pekin official Gazette publishes 
in full the respectful remonstrance. This Pekin Ga- 
zette, by-the-way, is the only real Chinese newspaper 
in the empire. It is published daily here, and the 
manuscript is furnished twenty-four hours in advance 
to the foreign ministers, if they desire it. It is an 
official record only, with no dissertations in it, no / 
" editorials," only the decrees of the Government, 
and the reports and petitions of mandarins from the 
provinces. 

But what a long, dull yarn ! I am weary, and 
off to the great wall in the morning. 



LETTER XXIV. 

FROM TEE GREAT WALL OF CEINA. 

On Top of the Great "Wall of China.— Droves of Sheep, Hogs, Ponies, Donkeys. — 
Mongolians and Manchus. — Speech-making on Top of the Great Wall. — Speech 
of J. B. to the Great Wall.— Tartars, a Species of Yankees, leaping over all 
Walls.— Outfit for the Trip from Pekin to the Great Wall.— Brick Tea.— Sheep's- 
tail Soup. — Eggs in Abundance. — Mule Litters. — Description of the Craft. — The 
Muleteers. — Mingling Mire, Mud, and Dust. — Sounding for the Bottom of the 
Bogs. — Dodging into Farms and Gardens. — Koads in China are Ditches. — The 
Pass of Nan-Kow. — First Night's Experience in a Mongolian Inn. — A Brick 
Oven to sleep on.— Journey to the Wall over a Eough and Terrible Eoad. — A 
Series of Walls.— A Lunch amid Kuins of the Wall— The Comfort of a Cup of 
Cold Water. 

On Top of the Great Wall of China, ) 
August 27, 1871. ) 

Veni, vidi, vici. I have clambered up on to the 
tip-top of the Great "Wall of China ! I have suffered 
some, especially in bones and the flesh — but what of 
that, now I am here ! Vidi. I have seen lots of 
sheep, with thick, fat tails, that make (report says), 
the best of soup (perhaps, I have eaten some of it — 
happy ignorance — don't know), and have seen lots of 
lean, lank, long-eared, black hogs, all the way from 
Mongolia — intelligent black hogs, for they under- 
stand two languages (more than I do), the Mongo- 
lian and Chinese, and they obey their drivers, unlike 
other hogs ; and I have also seen lots of Mongolians 
— fellows with fur caps on, this hot summer weather, 
and sheep-skin coats, working their way, with their 



FEOM THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA. 209 

ponies, and the truck on them, to the great imperial 
city. "Well, I have got now on to the jumping-off 
place, and intend to stop, and not jump off. The Mon- 
golian Buddhists tell my man, Cheng, " These foreign 
devils can't go much further, just now, unless they 
turn Mohammedans, for the Mohammedans are kill- 
ing all Buddhists" (out there in Tartary). As I am 
neither for Buddha, nor for Mohammed (only a hard- 
shell Baptist), both sides might try to kill me unless 
I enlisted under one banner or the other ; and hence 
I return homeward-bound, now, and as fast as I can 
go in the round-about European way, by the Indian 
Sea. 

"When, last November, ex-Secretary Seward and 
his party, with Admiral Rodgers and his party, were 
here, the ex-Secretary made a great speech to the 
Admiral, which has been duly recorded in the Shang- 
hai (English) Gazette, if not in the Pekin (official 
Chinese) Gazette, It must have been a funny speech, 
funnigrapMcally reported, thus made up here to the 
crows, and the sparrows, and the black hogs, and 
donkeys, and mules, and some half-dozen Americans. 
Nevertheless, standing upon this great precedent, 
I propose to make a speech, not to Admiral Rodgers, 
for he is now off in Japan, but to the Great Wall it- 
self. And here it is : 

" Me. Gee at Wall of China : 

" I've come some fifteen thousand miles, from the Antip- 
odes, mainly to see you, but I don't think you are worth all 
that trouble. You are a big thing, that is certain, a mighty 
big thing ; but I could have bought a photograph of you for a 



210 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

Mexican dollar, and it has cost me many, to get up here. I 
won't come again, till, in the metempsychosis, I become 
younger and greener. I don't know how old you are, and 
can't find out— only that you are not half as old as Cheops' 
Pyramids, in Egypt. You were only begun, it seems, b. o. 213, 
and you were not done with till a. d. 1368, if then. You are 
very long, to be sure — some say two thousand miles. Fifty 
thousand workmen were at one time, so it is stated, at work, 
only repairing and extending you. But what's all that to the 
great Pacific Kailroad, Mr. "Wall, as long as you are, and going 
through mountains, not up and over them, as you do ! Never- 
theless, I don't mean to say you are not a very respectable, 
nay, a very wonderful Wall. 

" But, Mr. "Wall, you were built, you know, to keep off the 
Yankee Tartars from running over you into the flowery land 
of China. Have you kept them off ? No, never! The Mon- 
golian, Manchu and Siberian Tartars are very like all Tartars, 
everywhere, from New England to Old England. Put a lot of 
people down in a country only half made when the world was 
made, such as Old England or New England is, where nothing 
grows except with a great deal of trouble, and then very spar- 
ingly — where you need furs and fires to keep warm, and strong 
meats and strong drinks to keep alive — and do you think such 
an uneasy people there will not leap over walls, in order to 
get down into the golden grain, the silver rice, the flowery 
land of milk and honey? The Tartar peeped over these moun- 
tains, and, tired of sheep's tails, and sheep-skins, and bear 
meat, and tiger and leopard soup, and beef and butter, he de- 
termined to have something better; and hence he jumped, by 
thousands and thousands, over your wall, just as we home 
Yankees jumped over the Alleghanies, and the Potomac, and 
the Eocky Mountains, into sunnier countries and better lands. 
Man, by nature, is an indolent animal, and does not like to hoe 
rocks, or fight Jack Erost, ten months in the year. He is not 
content with crab-apples, but wants persimmons, grapes, figs, 
oranges, bananas, and will have them. Man was born with 
the devil in him, north, and the devil is only melted out of him 
under the hot suns of the south. Hence, Mr. "Wall, the great 
Khans of Tartary, from Genghis Khan and Kulla Khan, on, and 
down, never much minded the great piles of granite and brick 



FROM THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA. 211 

you have put up here. They scaled the mountain tops, and 
jumped over, or banged through the granite and brick in the 
valleys. There is no stopping Yankees anywhere — Yankee 
Tartars in America, or John Bull Tartars in England, when 
you show them a better country to live in, than they were born 
in. Thus, Genghis Khan (a. d. 1212), and Timour the Tartar 
— Yankees, undoubtedly — starting up here, somewhere, among 
these rocks and caverns, tired of black hogs, and sheep's tails, 
and a nomad life, with no cabbages to eat, nor onions, deter- 
mined to overrun the world, and nearly did it. They ran over 
the Kussias, ran down the Turks and Huns, and scared the 
Germans half out of their wits, while they scrambled over all 
China. The Chinese, however, did what most Southerners do 
with Northerners — captivated (not captured) them, sweetened 
them, took the barbaric out of them and put the gentle in ; 
softened, humanized, civilized them, till the Tartars themselves 
became Chinese. "Walls, then, Mr. Wall, have not half the in- 
fluence over Yankees as a softer civilization. Granite and 
bricks and the bow and arrow are nothing in comparison with 
flowers, fruits, fields, figs, fans, etc., etc. The pretty fans of 
China fanned the devil nearly all out of all the fiery Tartars, and 
they quitted their horses, and took to the hoe and the shovel. 
If Mazeppa ever rode down this way, through the mountain 
passes, he is digging now, not horse-vaulting, and singing Chi- 
nese ditties and chants, not yelling and bellowing after hordes, 
and horses, and asses, and bullocks and calves. Mazeppa is no 
longer a nomad, but a farmer, now, in China. 

" Mr. Wall and Mr. Mountain Pass — if we had you now in 
Yankee land, we should run a railroad right through you — 
(make bridges of you, Mr. Wall) — and drive off these camels, 
who are bringing on their backs coal from your miserably- 
worked mines, Mr. Mountain ; and all these asses, donkeys, 
mules, and horses, that, by the thousands, are now bringing 
things, in panniers, from, and to Mongolia, and the region be- 
yond. What a shame to keep these thousands of men thus 
employed, when one locomotive on an iron rail would do all 
their work ? If you, Mr. Wall, had fought the present Manchu 
Tartars now ruling China with a locomotive and one big gun on 
it, yon, Chinamen would not be obliged to be wearing pig-tails, 
and a shaven head, as you are — a fashion these Manchus im- 



212 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

posed upon you when they broke through this wall. True, 
you have imposed upon them all your other fashions, except 
the little squeezed feet — (the Manchu women have ever refused 
to have their feet thus squeezed up) — but these bare heads, 
these pig- tails, the emblems of your subjection to the Northern 
Yankees, are very, very bad. 

" Now, Mr. "Wall, you have an expression of my mind. I 
shall take home a piece of " a brick " in memory of you — a 
whole brick I would take, if my carpet-bag were big enough 
for such big bricks as you are made of; and you must consider 
this a particular compliment, for if I should take home a brick 
of all the wonders I am seeing, I should have to take home a 
caravan of camels, too, to carry the load. Good-by ! " 

But how did you get from Pekin to the Great 
"Wall of China? Listen, and I will tell you. Our 
" fit-out " was cold mutton, and beef, and chicken, 
and sugar, and tea, and liquors as needful ; beds, 
sheets, blankets, mosquito nets, pillows, plates, cups, 
saucers, with knives, forks, spoons, etc., etc., for 
there is little to be had on the route that an Ameri- 
can would like to live on. Brick tea you can have 
— the refuse tea-dust of China, baked into a brick — 
sheep's tails and mutton grease, made, some say, 
into candles, and then mixed in a soup of the tails, 
with the tea ; but to such as are not thus brought 
up, the fare might be hard. Eggs, there are plenty 
of, en route, and hens and chickens ; and where they 
are, even an American need not starve. Our car- 
riages were what in Turkey they call Taktaravans — 
here, a mule litter, a large palanquin suspended, on 
the backs of two mules, lengthwise. Strong leather 
bands connect the points of the shafts resting on the 



FROM THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA. 213 

saddles of the mules. An iron pin, fixed in the top 
of the saddle, passes through a hole in the leather, 
and so keeps it in its place. The shafts are, of 
course, long, to reach from one mule to another, and 
to leave the animals plenty of room to walk. The 
motion is not at all disagreeable — nay, luxurious, 
when compared with all the other means of locomo- 
tion I have seen in China. The saddle looks as if 
it weighed a half cord of wood, and the litter a full 
cord. It was so heavy that it took four men to lift 
it. I stretched out and slept in it pretty well, when 
out late at night ; and it was not difficult to read 
novels in it, when there was nothing to see, or noth- 
ing else to do. 

The muleteers, two men to each litter — one for the 
front mule and one for the rear mule — started from 
Pekin early in the morning, and, at the rate of two 
miles per hour, contrived to get out of the city walls 
in two hours. In turning a sharp street corner, one 
litter turned over — for the shafts are so long that 
sharp corners cannot be turned with them ; but no 
particular damage was done, even to the crockery 
ware, and none to us, save the fright. "We blocked 
up a Pekin narrow street, and strung along a mile of 
carts, front and rear, before we were extricated — with 
an anxious crowd looking on and marvelling where 
such strange " critters " were going in such vehicles. 
The roads, just now, were in a mixed condition of 
mud, mire, and dust. Heavy rains had saturated the 
earth, and a hot August sun was drying them up, 



214: A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

and turning them into dust. Whenever our mulet- 
eers saw a bog of mire ahead, in fear and trembling 
they sounded for bottom with the handles of their 
whips — (for, four hundred pounds on a mule's back, 
eight hundred pounds on two mules' backs, are likely 
to sink them, if once they get into a Serbonian bog). 
If the passage was found safe, through we floundered ; 
if not, we ascended the banks, and made long cir- 
cuits through farms, and gardens, and crops. Occa- 
sionally we were lost in the tall millet, or Indian 
corn, or sorghum, and the dogs barked at us, and the 
children rushed out to see what had come. Occa- 
sionally, too, a farmer would turn out, and " swear " 
we should not tread down his crops with mules, and 
threaten a fight ; but when our man-of-all-work, 
Cheng, pointed to our European faces, and the liv- 
eried coolie who accompanied us, and who gave his 
rank and dignity by his livery, we were permitted to 
trample down millet, or beans, or peas, or corn, or 
any thing. Nevertheless, we had a hard time in 
these by-ways. The impassable bogs were numer- 
ous, and we threaded passages where mule litters 
never went before. The roads in China, I may as 
well tell you here, have become excavations, tunnels, 
ditches from long, long use, and the practice of gath- 
ering up the loose dirt in them to manure the Melds ; 
and into these ditches, whenever there is rain, the 
water pours and gathers, and soon makes stagnant 
pools and bogs. These bogs in the road were our 
terror, and hence these long farm detours. 



FROM THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA. 215 

Our " breakfast " was taken at four p. m., at Sha- 
ho, a village sixty li, or twenty miles, from Pekin — a 
distance, with the detours, we had been since seven 
A. m. travelling over. Nankow, the mouth of the 
mountain pass, some fifteen miles more distant, was 
to be our sleeping place, and we made for it, after 
breakfast, with all possible mule speed, then two or 
two and a half miles per hour. A blessed moon 
lighted up our stony, rough way, or we never should 
have got there that night. After passing by and 
around, I can scarcely say over, two splendid stone 
bridges, now pretty well in ruins, I did not see much 
after leaving Sha-ho. In spite of the horrible road, 
and the perils of mule litter travelling at night, I 
was rocked to sleep, and I slept soundly till we 
reached JSTankow, eleven o'clock at night. There , 
there was a terrible row. The whole caravansera, 
pretty well filled with travellers, donkies, asses, was 
dead in sleep, and it was only after a loud, long 
knocking that we could wake up the master of the 
domicile, and make him understand we wanted wa- 
ter, hot and cold, and a place to lay our heads in, 
and to feed the mules in, that night. 

Let me now introduce you to a Nankow hostelry, 
the kind existing all the way now into Russia, and 
far away, in there, certainly through Siberia. The 
donkeys and asses have troughs to eat in, under 
about as good a cover as you have, and close by your 
sleeping chamber ; and you have an oven to sleep 
on, and over the oven, a mat, to keep the bricks from 



216 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

burning your skin, if the oven by chance gets too 
hot. Thank the good month of August, there needed 
no fires in our oven, and we were not roasted, nor 
baked, as travellers sometimes are in December or 
January. Tou, if you are old enough, remember the 
old Eussian (brick) oven stoves in New England, be- 
fore the days of iron. These brick stoves, especially 
in the New-England school-houses, were lit up, say at 
four a. m., for the school, beginning at nine A. m., by 
which time the school-house had become so hot, from 
the quantity of wood consumed within the stove, that 
only salamanders could healthily live in the school- 
house building. The Yankees got that stove idea 
from these Mongols and Tartars up here. The dif- 
ference is, that the Mongolians turn them to double 
use, for beds, and blankets, or comforters, while we 
only use them to warm rooms. On top of the mat, 
which was on top of the dirty bricks, that had not 
had a sweeping since they were laid, and full of all 
sorts of harmless creatures, that only nipped a little, 
but did not bite, we laid our beds. I never slept 
better. The donkeys brayed ; the mules uttered their 
most plaintive lays for more fodder ; the muleteers, 
roused up at midnight, and wondering what new 
fellows had come, sputtered monosyllabic yells that 
would have scared a traveller out of his wits if he 
had not been hearing like yelling from his own mu- 
leteers all day long. Nevertheless, after drinking 
my tea, after eating my omelette (I never ask now 
how omelettes are made, without butter or milk, and 



FROM THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA. 217 

there are none here), and nibbling my bread, I never 
slept better. The New-York Fifth Avenue has bet- 
ter, that is, softer beds, to be snre, and a better table ; 
but our railroad cars and steamboats do not prepare 
a traveller to enjoy them, as the litter did me, in this 
Yourt, with the horses, the mules, the donkeys, the 
Mongolian and Chinese muleteers. In a cold night, 
I can well fancy, there may be a comfort on the hot 
bricks of the oven you are sleeping over; but my 
" windows " were open, and the pure air of heaven 
was coming in from the mountains, and not even a 
blanket was necessary. We all waked at. 5 a. m., men 
and donkeys, and we all breakfasted, I may say, to- 
gether. Early hours, the Chinese keep. They are no 
laggards in the morning. Even the emperor gives 
audience to his mandarins at 5 A. m., who get their 
tea before they start for the palace, and have their 
breakfast on their return at 8 A. m. Our breakfast 
over, finished before 6 a. m., we started off, through 
the mountain-passes, for the wall, fifteen miles off — 
the ladies in sedan-chairs, with four coolies to each 
chair, and I, on the back of an interesting mule, that 
would do what he pleased, and, I soon found, knew 
so much more than I did, about mountain travelling, 
that I suffered the better informed beast to do as he 
pleased. 

What I saw — what cuffs, kicks, shakes, thumps, 
over, amid, and on, the loose rocks, and huge bowl- 
ders, and mountain-torrents of this terrible road — no 
matter ! Bells were tinkling on all our mules, and 



218 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

on all the leading animals we met, the one to warn 
the other, so as not to be caught in an impassable 
pass. The mnleteers kept up a wild chatter with 
their beasts, and the beasts seemed to understand 
them well. We met great flocks of black-headed 
sheep, with heavy, short, fat tails, and otherwise 
very white fleeces. We met hogs by the thousands. 
Droves of horses and donkeys, too, were en route for 
the Pekin market. Thousands and tens of thousands 
of people are daily passing over this great highway 
from China to Mongolia and Russia, and over such a 
road, not as good as that old horse-path up and down 
the "White (New Hampshire) Mountains, on either 
side. Not five miles out of Nankow I began to see 
one of the series of walls that have been erected in 
this great pathway to keep off Tartar invasions. 
The terror inspired by the outer tribes of the North 
has been such that the Chinese have fortified almost 
the whole gap in the mountains. A handful of men, 
with modern artillery, with European handling, could 
now keej) off Genghis Khan or Tamerlane ; but not 
with only spears, and bows, and arrows, once the 
weapons of war, as here, even now, to a great extent. 
There are four or ^.ve series of walls, running up 
even to the tops of the hills, before one comes to the 
Great Wall. All over the hills, by the valleys, are 
the ruins of old forts in the direction of the road. 
Bloody battles have been fought here — many of 
them — but the story of them is lost to us, for there is 
no historian before Agamemnon. "When, in olden 



FROM THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA. 219 

times, the Mongols were coming, the intelligence was 
transmitted into China by beacon-fires, lighted on the 
towers, and the signal flashed through the Chinese 
dominions, and the mandarins assembled their hosts 
from the south to repel the invader. 

At last, as I have already written, we were up an 
ascent of rocks, over which the Great Wall towers, 
some thirty or thirty-five feet high, with a granite 
foundation and a brick crenellated topping thereon. 
We let loose our mules here, freed, pro tern., our 
chair-men, and then, spreading our blankets on the 
grass created by the vegetation grown around the 
ruins, reclined to eat and to drink — a lunch, or tiffin, 
as it is called in the East. The cup of cool moun- 
tain water that for weeks and weeks I have been 
longing for — water freed from impurities, and fresh 
as the torrent just springing from its native wells — 
was here. No one knows how good water tastes un- 
less one has been living, as I have been, for weeks, on 
claret, beer, porter, and tea, feeling it not safe to 
drink the water of the country below ; and hence, I 
now drank mountain water by " the wholesale," and 
became as good a temperance man as !Neal Dow in 
Maine. 



LETTER XXV. 

RETURN TO PEKIN. 

The Ming Tombs. — The Grand Approach to thenz — All going to ruin. — The Summer 
Palace of the Emperors. — " Yueng-Ming-Yuen-Ching," the man-of-all-work. — 
Letters of Credit no Service in Pekin. — No Coin or Currency in China. — Sycee. — 
The North of China. — The Emperor gives Audience at 5 A. m.— The Marble Bridge 
and the Lotus.— The Temple of Heaven.— The Temple of Earth.— The Sacrifices 
in these Temples by the Emperor. 

September 1, 1871. 

From the Great "Wall of China I went to the Ming 
Tombs (the Chinese imperial burying-plaee, what the 
Pyramids were to the Egyptians). The Ming dynasty 
was a pure Chinese dynasty— no Tartar blood in it — 
and one of the Mings created, in a beautiful valley 
here, just under the mountain road about, a series of 
burial-places, now one of the wonders of China, though 
half in ruins, as every thing is here. The approach 
from Pekin (thirty miles distant) into the valley is, or 
rather was, once, magnificent. There are six great 
stages, or notable places, in the valley, to the tomb of 
Tung-lo — a marble gateway, constructed of fine white 
marble, ninety feet long, fifty feet high, carved with 
squares of flowers ; then, a stone bridge ; then, the 
Dragon and Phcenix gate, and seven marble bridges 
witli elegant balustrades ; then, the avenue of ani- 
mals, cut in bluish marble in colossal size — two pairs 



RETURN TO PEKIN. 221 

i of lions, two of unicorns, two of camels, two of ele- 

I . . 

] phants, and two of horses. The elephants are thirteen 

j feet high and seven wide. Beyond the animals come 
j the military and civil mandarins, six on each side. 
| These are all in grand costumes. Our mules found 
I these lion and elephant figures so life-like that they 
I shied at them, trembled all over, and refused to pass 
I by. We had to blind their eyes, and then make 
them follow a donkey who did not appreciate sculp- 
ture as well as the mules. Gradually, then, over a 
paved road, we came through persimmon, or wild 
mulberry orchards, to the great resting-place and 
tomb of Yung-lo. I could fill a page with an inter- 
esting topographical description of the vast hall, two 
hundred and ten feet wide, and thirty feet deep — of 
its pillars of teak wood, twelve feet round and thirty- 
two feet high to the ceiling — but *who, in America 
cares for the Mings, or the dead Mr. Yung-lo, whose 
remains repose in the august mausoleum in the rear 
of that hall? I only hint of what I saw, in order to 
impress you with the idea that the Chinese were as 
proud of mausoleums as the Egyptians were, or, as 
New-Yorkers are of Greenwood Cemetery. But Mr. 
Yung-lo's and all the other Ming tombs are rapidly 
going to grass. Another (Manchu) dynasty is on the 
throne. Grass is growing all over the roofs, and 
wild weeds are in all the courts, and often in the halls. 
By-and-by, it will be as hard to find where Mr. Yung- 
lo was buried as where Augustus, or Julius Caesar, or 
Titius Livy, or Demosthenes, or Thucydides rested. 



222 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

Dollars are wasted on great mausoleums. A thou- 
sand years after a man is dead, who cares for his 
dust and ashes, if any of them are left ? I ate eggs 
and cold mutton, and drank Bass's London beer, on 
the floors of the Mings, within the sacred enclosure, 
and paid the keeper a few cash (cents) for the privi- 
lege. A dozen Chinese muleteers would look on to 
see how a Yankee ate eggs and mutton with a knife 
and fork, all hankering after the to oe empty bottle, 
invaluable to them as a bottle ; and such is life, and 
such is death, among the Ming Tombs ! 

If one will go to see where Chinese emperors are 
buried, one ought to go, next, to see where Chinese 
emperors lived. Hence, we went over a few miles, 
some twenty, perhaps, or more, to Yueng-Ming- 
Yuen, the once wonderful summer palace that the 
British and French burnt down, or blew up with 
powder in 1860. You will remember that in 1859 
the Chinese declined to execute the treaties which 
let foreign ministers into Pekin, and that Sir Frede- 
rick Bruce (who died in Boston, after being the Brit- 
ish Minister in "Washington), and our Mr. Ward, 
were not permitted to reside there. The British and 
French concluded to fight their way into the capital, 
and were successful in the fight. The Chinese vio- 
lated a truce, and murdered some Englishmen and 
French, whereupon, in revenge, the summer palace 
of the emperor was sacked and destroyed in part. It 
is said ten million dollars' worth of valuables were 
found in it by the soldiers, who were permitted to 



RETUKN TO PEKIN. 223 

sack it, which many of these soldiers, little under- 
standing values, sold for trifles. Gardens, palaces, 
temples, and pagodas on artificial hills, were all 
sacked. Judging by what is now left in ruins, it 
seems to me that the famous gardens and parks of 
Versailles, and Wilhelnishdhe, in Hesse Cassel, are 
not more beautiful than this summer palace, Yueng- 
Ming-Yuen, was. Here the emperor resided five or 
six months in the year, with his wives, and his eu- 
nuchs, and servants — Pekin, some eight miles off in 
sight — and every thing about him that could give a 
human being luxury, ease, effeminacy. There was 
a lake for gondolas to glide in. There was an arti- 
ficial island, with summer-house on it, and a bridge, 
magnificently arched, leading by a circuit to it. 
There are groves and tangled thickets, left purposely 
wild to contrast with the artificial structures all 
about. Statues of many kinds, in marble and bronze, 
are numerous, some mutilated, but enough left to 
show the once great grandeur of the twelve square 
miles within the inclosure of the palace. We lunched 
within, near dragons in marble, on a terrace, under 
cedars and pines ; and here, in the life palace of the 
Emperors, we had our little feast, as the day before 
in the Ming Tombs. Travellers must eat and drink, 
no matter in what high places their meal-times pick 
them up. 

Weary and worn, after four days of hard excur- 
sions, we returned to the great city, and the mud we 
had found in it two weeks a°;o was now dust and 



224: A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

flying dirt, and flying dirt and dust. I am beginning 
to think my first entree into Pekin in the mud has 
made me do injustice to its streets. One does not 
need seven-leagued boots now to get over its ditches 
and pools. The springless carts are endurable where 
there are no pavements, and it is the fashionable 
vehicle I see now, with curtains, and covers, and 
paint, and vermilion ; and therefore not so very bad 
to look at. But custom fits the eye for almost any 
thing. Pekin looks vastly better to me than it did 
at first. I think I could exist here, if there was no 
other place to live in. The air is exhilarating, and 
the climate has been beautiful since I came here. So 
much in apology for first impressions in Pekin. 

I have written of " Cheng," my dragoman, inter- 
preter, cook, valet, waiter, man-of-all-work, and a 
genius besides, who only asks ten dollars (Mexican) 
per month, and pickings. The ten Mexicans turn 
out to be the very smallest part of the pay — for I 
am wholly in his power. I cannot enter a temple 
without him, or get out of one, or do without him 
at any time, anywhere. Cheng's genius is best 
displayed hereabout on currency, and I can rec- 
ommend him to the President for his Secretary of 
the Treasury, as long as the paper-money system 
exists in America. Cheng will turn a Mexican dol- 
lar into nothing, by the exchanges, through the 
bankers, a little quicker than it can be done in Wall 
Street, New York, or, in Montgomery Street, San 
Francisco. I give him Mexicans, and he exchanges 



RETURN TO PEKIN. 225 

them for sycee, silver (chopped-up silver, generally), 
and he exchanges that into the paper money of Pekin, 
which is not current ten miles out of the city. They 
have paper money here in Pekin only, just as we 
have "stamps" in the United States — the lowest 
value, ten of our cents ; but underneath and beyond 
this is " cash," in strings of copper, one thousand 
to twelve hundred of which make a dollar, and on a 
journey, you have to take, or ought to take, strings 
of cash weighing enough to load a mule. With a 
respectably' big good bill of credit from New York or 
London, I cannot get a cent from it here, in Pekin 
(there are no bills of exchange drawn here on any- 
where), and were it not for the kindness and trust of 
the Comprador (financial officer) of the Russian Lega- 
tion, I could not have gone to " the wall," or get out of 
Pekin. I brought up from Tien-tsin, here, as many 
Mexican dollars as I dared to carry, but they were 
soon exhausted in the temptation of the shops of Pe- 
kin. The currency of China is in a most abominable 
state. The Government money is trusted in nothing 
but in its copper coinage. Even Mexican dollars 
will not pass among the country people. Silver only 
is used, and that, everywhere goes by weight. ' There 
are no Chinese coins ; there is no mint. The Gov- 
ernment would not be trusted to have on.e, so corrupt 
is it believed to be, or has been, in times gone by, in 
the coinage of money, or in the issuance of paper, 
which, in large quantities, it once put forth, as de- 
scribed in the travels of the Venetian Marco Polo. 
11 



226 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

Before I leave these regions of North China, 
from whence there is no emigration, save into Mon- 
golia and Manchuria — none, certainly, to America — 
I must pay a passing tribute to the general appar- 
ent kindness of the people, and the safety for the 
European traveller. No one has designed or inti- 
mated harm to us, either in the ]one villages or on 
the River Peiho, when exposed all night on the sam- 
pan boats, or en route from Tung Chow and Pekin to 
the Great Wall — far, far into China's interior. We 
have scarcely ever felt the least sense of insecurity. 
Our lives for days and days have been at the mercy 
of Chinamen, and no one has harmed us, on the con- 
trary, all, though curious to see, have been hospitable 
to us. Ever since the wars between Great Britain and 
France, a foreigner seems to bear with him a charmed 
power for protection. Though provoked, as the Chi- 
nese must have been, by the burning of the Emperor's 
summer palace, even amid its ruins, the people all 
about were civil — so civil, that when requested to 
let us eat in peace, without the curious crowds usu- 
ally gathering around, they all cheerfully departed, 
and peeped from corners only, at a distance, fancying 
they were out of our sight. I have no gun with me, 
no revolver, and I deem the carrying of them more 
unsafe to my own surroundings than any protection 
they would give from any imaginary perils from the 
population about me. 

I have good opportunities now to see farm life, 
garden life, rural life, in general, The agriculture, 



RETURN TO PEKIN. 227 

especially the terrace agriculture, is not what I ex- 
pected to see. Farming is not carried to such per- 
fection as in Japan. Mountain land is not rescued 
from its barrenness where it might be ; but every spot 
of good land is put under cultivation for millet, or 
sorghum, or corn, or peas, or beans, etc. The sor- 
ghum runs up to twelve or fifteen feet high, and its 
stalks and roots are used for fuel in winter. There 
is no grass land in this part of China, and hence 
few or no cattle are raised here. There are no green 
fields, therefore, though often green hills, and these 
are, now, as green as in Switzerland ; and very Swiss- 
like among the mountains, with the Swiss disease of 
the goitre among the women there. And on these 
hills there are sometimes cattle and goats. A coun- 
try thus all ploughed, and hoed, and cultivated, its 
plains, now full of crops and teeming with agricul- 
tural wealth, is a novelty to an American eye. I 
could see nothing but crops, for miles and miles, as I 
wandered through the fields, and the field paths, 
called roads. There are some few fruits here — the 
apple, now ripening, not bad — the peach, not good 
nor bad, and the grape, excellent as a garden 
grape. Figs and pomegranates are growing in the 
gardens of the Legation about me, but they are 
housed in winter. The winter here, indeed, must be 
terrible, judging from the good, thick ice I see on 
the table, and from the abundance of furs and skins 
of all sorts in the markets, offered for sale as cloth- 
ing. The sun in summer is too fiery hot, and in 



228 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

midday, the safest way is to keep out of its rays. But 
the climate of Pekin I have found agreeable and 
healthy, and in the mountains not far off, the air is as 
pure as in Switzerland, or in Oregon, or in New 
Hampshire. Every one below in the unhealthy 
regions told me, " it was as much as a man's life was 
worth " to come to Pekin as a tourist in August ; 
but 4 1 have found myself improved in health and 
vigor. April, May, September and October, however, 
are the safest months to be here. Pekin is cut off 
from the rest of the world in winter, for ice blocks up 
every stream, everywhere, about here, and only long 
and tedious overland travel then is practicable. 

a • • • • . a 

Pekin, at seven o'clock in the morning, is the busi- 
est hour of the day. Later in the day, when the sun 
is hot, no one ventures out unless compelled so to do. 
After some difficulty, a horse was procured that would 
allow a lady to mount him (the horses here are so 
unaccustomed to women that they are frightened by 
them — their dresses, etc.). I started, with one of the 
gentlemen attached to the English Legation, for the 
celebrated marble bridge, about three miles from the 
Kussian Legation. We met, just at the outside of the 
gate, a long train of camels ; some heavily laden with 
bags of merchandise, others kneeling, waiting pa- 
tiently for their load — all awkward, ugly things, and 
at this season of the year, they are looking their 
ugliest, as they are shedding their coats. The streets 
are filled with them, and in close proximity to them 



RETURN TO PEKIN 229 

are the tiny donkeys, looking even smaller from con- 
trast. There are no carriages. As we wound our 
way slowly in and out of this motley crowd, and 
through the dirt of Pekin, we attracted quite as much 
curiosity as the novel sights excited in me. In many 
places the women were chatting to each other on 
their door-steps. As we approached, some would 
rush in (or rather hobble, owing to their cramped, de- 
formed feet) and shut the doors, but peep through 
the cracks until the foreign devils had passed. They 
were all, notwithstanding the early hour, painted 
with red and white ; their hair arranged and glued 
with a vegetable wax, and elaborately decorated with 
artificial flowers. They make these flowers very 
prettily, and sell them very cheap. The old gray- 
haired grandmothers will have a bunch of these bright 
flowers on their heads. Carts were passing us, with 
outriders. These carts were painted red, the wheels 
placed farther back than the common carts, the at- 
tendants dressed with the official cap, surmounted by 
a long, red tassel. I found these were the mandarins 
— high officials — going to an audience at the palace. 
The emperor receives his ministers at five o'clock 
every morning, and has an audience until 10 or 11 
Ac m. We now reached the Eoman Catholic Cathe- 
dral. But as we had visited the Cathedral and Con- 
vent a few days before, and the Sisters had shown us 
their schools and Chinese children, their embroidery, 
etc., we did not stop, but rode on to the bridge. We 
almost had to ride over the beggars that thronged 



230 A SEVEN MONTHS' KUN. 

around us — so dirty, so covered with sores, that it 
made one sick to look at them. Like all of that class, 
they make the most of their disgusting-looking ail- 
ments. 

The marble bridge itself is beautiful, built ever 
so many years ago — I am afraid to say how many ; 
and, wonderful for China, it is in fair repair. But 
the most beautiful thing, to my eyes, was the lake 
around this bridge, the whole surface of which was 
covered with the lotus flower in full bloom — of a beau- 
tiful pink shade, with large leaves, some lying flat on 
the surface, others coiled up, as we had seen them 
represented in so many of the temples, both in Japan 
and China. The lotus is a sacred flower. Near the 
wall of the palace was an odd-looking temple, very 
dilapidated and neglected. This proved to be a Mo- 
hammedan mosque, built by one of the Emperors for 
a favorite wife, who, after living here a few years, be- 
came so homesick that he built this Moorish temple, 
for her to look upon a home-scene ; but even then she 
was only permitted to look from a tower built inside 
of the palace walls. Poor Chinese Empress. What 
a sad lot to be selected to wear the ermine in China ! 
"We then rode past and around the temple that the 
Emperor uses to pray for rain. As this temple is con- 
stantly used it is kept in good repair, and brilliantly 
decorated with many colors. Again we met many 
carts, horses, donkeys, and a crowd standing and 
waiting. This is the great palace. While I stood gaz- 
ing — for we foreigners are not permitted on those holy 



EETURN TO PEKIN. 231 

grounds — a grand high mandarin drove up, alighted 
from his cart, and entered the sacred precincts. He 
was in his best robes, of dark-blue satin, embroidered 
with many colors ; his cap surmounted with a long 
tassel and blue button. We next made our way 
through the market. The attendants of these grand 
mandarins were busy getting their breakfasts — men, 
horses, dogs, donkeys, pigs, and some few women, in 
a heterogeneous mass — and not one single foreigner 
had we met in all this long ride. 



Fkiday, August 25. 

This morning, in our early ride, we decided to 
turn our horses' heads toward the Temple of Heaven, 
and determined to enter, if possible, by strategy or 
bribery. The Chinese strongly object to foreigners 
(especially foreign women) entering such holy 
grounds. They are reserved for the Emperor and 
high officers. The Emperor comes here to offer sac- 
rifices and pray for his ancestors once, at least, every 
year. On one or two other great occasions during 
the year, he may come here to offer prayers. During 
the rest of the time this great park of many acres, 
full of beautiful trees, walks, lakes, and flowers, is 
shut up, and left to the care of a few Chinese, who 
neglect it, and allow weeds to overgrow all of the 
paths, so that the undergrowth spoils the beautiful 
avenues of trees. On our way to this Temple of 
Heaven we rode through the Pekin fish, vegetable, 



232 ^ SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

and fruit markets. The trades-people are totally re- 
gardless of the comforts of either pedestrians or 
equestrians, as they erect their temporary tents in 
the middle of the streets ; and in our winding way 
we were often compelled to bend our heads to our 
horses' necks, to pass under these tents; but they 
were all good-natured, and I felt amply repaid by the 
many new sights it gave me of Chinese life. The 
fruit market was particularly attractive, and the fruit 
was arranged with quite an idea for effect as to 
color and variety. As we passed on to the south of 
the city, we met a funeral procession, the mourners 
(the men of the family) dressed in long, white robes ; 
then a crowd of hired servants surrounded the cart 
holding the coffin ; and the musicians follow. This 
was only the funeral of a very ordinary individual. 
The higher the man's position, the greater the funeral 
procession. On our right, we now see the Temple 
of Earth (or Agriculture), where the Emperor goes 
every spring to plough ; on the left, the Temple of 
Heaven. We rode rapidly across the open field, hop- 
ing to conceal our advance to the temple gate by the 
Avails, and so to approach near enough to the gates to 
ride in before they could be closed upon us. But the 
"Heathen Chinee" were too quick for us, and tri- 
umphantly slammed the gates together, one minute 
and a half too soon for us. We talked, bribed, threat- 
ened ; they held out to make us bribe more, and at 
last slowly swung back the heavy gate. We found 
this first wall enclosed many acres ; the trees, evi- 



RETURN TO PEKIK 233 

dently, many hundred years old, and a beautiful ave- 
nue, formed of large trees meeting overhead, extended 
from this first gate to the second, a distance of a quar- 
ter of a mile. Here, again, we were refused admit- 
tance, until further bribery was resorted to. Even then 
they insisted upon our dismounting, as the grounds 
were too sacred for horses. The distance from the sec- 
ond to the third gate was twice as great as the first 
one ; and then, mounting some dozen steps, we were on 
a raised terrace, running from the north to the south 
of the temple grounds. At the south was a large cir- 
cular marble altar, built in three terraces, each terrace 
raised nine feet, and on the top, it is thirty or forty 
feet in diameter. Partially surrounding this altar, 
on the southeast, are the urns for burning the sacri- 
fices, and offerings of silk, etc. The animals for 
sacrifice must be selected with great care. They are 
bullocks, two years old, without blemish — the best 
of their kind. They are fed in the park which sur- 
rounds the altar. The Emperor, every December 21, 
proceeds to the Temple of Heaven in an elephant 
carriage. Since the death of the last Emperor all 
the elephants have died; and as the boy Emperor 
will be inaugurated next year, the King of Siam, it 
is said, is to send him two white elephants to draw 
his carriage when he goes to offer his prayers and 
sacrifices in the Temple of Heaven. On entering 
these sacred grounds, the Emperor first goes to the 
Tablet Chapel, on the north side of the grounds. 
Here he offers incense to Shang-ti, and to his ances- 



234: A SEVEN MONTHS' KUN. 

tors, with three kneelings and nine prostrations. 
This chapel is one of the best preserved I have seen 
in Pekin. The roof is richly ornamented with carv- 
ing and brilliant coloring ; the columns (that support 
the roof, which is made pagoda-like, three stories 
high) are more than two feet in diameter, made of 
wood, plastered with crimson, and painted all over 
with gold beasts, birds, and fishes, as well as I could 
decipher. The marble terraces and steps, both at the 
north and south altars, are handsomely carved ; but 
weeds are growing up, mouldering, and covering even 
these beautiful things. ]S"ext year, I suppose, all 
will be made as bright and beautiful as thousands of 
workmen can make them. The sacrifice at the north 
altar takes place at the beginning of spring. The 
Emperor goes from his home in the city to the altar, 
to meet there the new-come spring, and offer prayer 
to Shang-ti for a blessing on the labors of the hus- 
bandman. Here, also, as at the south altar, are seen 
the green furnace for the bullock sacrifice, and the 
eight open-work iron urns in which the offerings of 
silk are burrit. An urn is added when an Emperor 
dies. A plain, uncolored, and coarsely-woven silk 
cloth is preferred for these offerings. Prayer for rain 
is offered at the south altar in the summer. On oc- 
casions of drought the Emperor sometimes goes on 
foot to the " Hall of Penitent Fasting.'' This is to 
indicate that his anxiety of mind forbids him to 
seek bodily ease while his subjects are suffering. 
The anger of Heaven is a sign that there is a fault 



EETURN TO PEKIN. 235 

in the prince. He, therefore, lays aside his state for 
the time. 

The distance to be walked is three English miles, 
and it may be at a time of year when the heat is 
great (and it is certain to be, when the dnst is many 
inches deep). He may, however, return on horse- 
back. This is a special ceremony. There is also a 
regular prayer and sacrifice for rain offered about 
the time of the summer solstice. At this time the 
Emperor kneels on the top step or platform of the 
altar, and his officers arrange themselves on the 
twenty-nine steps and terraces behind him. The 
prayer is then presented and read. It is then placed 
before Shang-ti on the offering of silk. The prayer, 
which is written on silk, is then taken to the iron 
urns, and there burnt. The temples and grounds are 
full of interest. Still, you are never impressed with a 
belief in the religion of China. The mould, dust, and 
decay cover and penetrate every thing. 



LETTER XXYI. 

HE TURNING SOUTHWARD. 

A Traveller retracing his Steps. — Tung Chow, on the Peiho Eiver. — The Wheel- 
barrow Traffic— Death to the Coolies. — Processions en route. — Of Funerals 
and "Weddings. — A Good Story told of Gov. Seward. — Mistaking a Funeral Pro- 
cession for an Ovation to Himself.— Expense of Travelling as a Grandee.— A Tem- 
ple for a Hotel. — Punning the Gauntlet of the Junks to Tien-tsin. — The Noisy 
Monosyllables of the Chinese. — Huge Pyramids of Salt. — Home, Sweet Home. — 
The Szechuen. — Under a Yankee Captain from Maine. — The Grapes of the 
Peiho.— The Polling Screw Steamers of the Yellow Sea. — Rivalry of British and 
American Steamers. — Chinese Customs collected by Foreigners. — The American 
Flag driven off. — Manuiactures driven off. 

Shanghai, September 10, 1871. 
Retracing one's steps is not a traveller's pleasure. 
En avant is the watchword in going, as well as in 
fighting. But in China an American sees so much 
of the new, that reseeing opens to him novelty after 
novelty. We left Pekin at noon, a hot sun on our 
backs, good for the rheumatism, which at this season 
of the year, up there, hits one, when sitting out and 
enjoying the night breezes. I was on horseback — 
no more springless carts for me, though Mongolian 
horses are rather tricky; and we had a handsome 
escort of young Englishmen, attached to the Eng- 
lish Legation, as student interpreters, some of whom 
went sixteen miles, all the way to Tung Chow, where 
we take boats to go down the Peiho River. We 
tea-ed on the road. Inns, here, ever sell tea — none, 



RETURNING SOUTHWARD. 237 

whiskey, rum, or brandy — and tea, I am finding more 
and more, is a great refresher to the traveller, with- 
out cream or sugar, even. What most rearrested my 
attention now, was the immense number of wheel- 
barrows, wheeling merchandise from the Peiho River 
to Pekin. These wheelbarrows, with one wheel only 
in the centre, are so overladen that it would seem im- 
possible for men to manage them, if you did not see 
them doing it. Tons seemed to be on them ; and how 
the man in the middle, with a strap over his shoulders, 
over the wheelbarrow, handles or manages to live 
under the burden is astonishing. Forty years of age 
is said to be the oldest of this class of coolies. This 
middle man, though, often has a mule pulling ahead of 
him, and on the sides of the wheelbarrow, are two men 
if not more, to steady. Over the paved road, full of all 
sorts of deep holes, worn by years and years of wheel- 
ing, go these wheelbarrows, with their loads, for all the 
interior of this northern part of China, and for Mon- 
golia and Manchuria. A steel rail, or iron, might be 
laid at little expense over this level-paved road, but 
it is not permitted. A locomotive rail would do the 
transportation for one-twentieth of the present cost. 
"But," say the authorities, " this would throw thou- 
sands of the coolies out of employ ! " The reply to 
this has been, " So do junks ; so does the Grand 
Canal." " Why not destroy junks and canals, and 
let coolies and wheelbarrows do all the work every- 
where? Why endure horses, and camels, and 
mules % " 



238 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

"We met several processions en route, some funeral, 
some wedding. These are very imposing, both of 
them, very showy and very flashy. They tell a good 
story in Pekin of Gov. Seward, when here — doubt- 
less a lie, but too good a Sttory to be lost for that. 
The expectations of the ex- Governor were said to be 
great, when he entered the great capital of this great 
empire, with which he had made a great treaty; 
and he therefore indulged in great expectations of a 
great welcome. As he entered the gates of Pekin, a 
great funeral procession was coming out with music, 
catafalque, etc., etc., all as imposing as a grand pro- 
cession of some great dead man could well be made. 
The Governor was entering with the marine band of 
the Colorado, mounted on donkeys, as this grand pro- 
cession was going out. The great living and the 
great dead thus met. The Governor, naturally 
enough, concluded this was in honor of his grand 
entree, and he rose, and rose, in his open sedan-chair, 
and bowed, and bowed, and then ordered a halt, and 
got out, and bowed, and bowed again, to the cata- 
falque of the dead. The Chinese think all foreigners 
are rather mad, and hence did not marvel over it as 
much as they might ; but when Gov. Seward found 
out what he had done, the story is, he was more mad 
than pleased. 

My exit and my entrance were not thus grand ; in, 
on a cart, and out, on a horse — but so much the better, 
for, to be a grandee, or to travel as" a grandee, is a 
grand expense. The kindly Russian protection under 



RETURNING SOUTHWARD. 239 

which I had fallen, relieved me from the many an- 
noyances of travel, all the way from Tien-tsin np 
to Tung Chow, and on to Pekin ; but when the 
Russians delivered me up, on the return, at Tung 
Chow, to the tender mercies of the Chinese, the trou- 
bles began. Everybody wanted something — what f 
and what, for f — who can tell, that speaks no Chinese, 
or understands it less when spoken? One stately 
fellow, however, in a semi-official hat, extorted a few 
dollars by an appeal to our " grandeur." " Every 
thing has been paid," said I. " True," the transla- 
tion was to me ; " but great people always pay more 
than little people ! " Who could help paying after 
that? The extra Mexicans were forked over, and 
without grumbling. {Mem. — If one would travel 
economically, never travel as " great people.") 

At Tung Chow — a big, walled city, by the way — 
we were, by grace and favor, re-tumbled into the 
Temple of Fang-Wang-Meaow. The priests were as 
good (to us) as if they had been Christian priests, and 
we, first-class Buddhists. Wearied and worn, they 
made every thing as comfortable as possible for us, 
bargained for us, and provided us with sampans 
(house boats), to take us down river ; and at midnight 
bade us good-by, as we embarked in them to return 
to Tien-tsin. We here regathered our " traps " — beds, 
bedding, blankets, dishes, and other household re- 
sources — and as the moon was rising, and we were bid- 
ding good-by in the distance to the Pagoda of Tung 
Chow, we went to sleep. What good philosophy this 



240 ' A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

is, thought I, when going to sleep — in an open boat, 
amid countless Chinese boats on the river, full of all 
sorts of people ! But what is the use of worrying ? 
Between springless carts, rnule-litters, and a hot horse- 
back ride, on a hard-going horse, with every bone and 
muscle aching, I could have slept, I am sure, even in 
the City Hall park (New York), with a blanket about 
me ; but I doubt if my pockets would have been as 
safe, or boots returned, if left outside the railing. 

We were only thirty- six hours returning to Tien- 
tsin (one hundred and twenty miles), the current 
carrying us — (fare for three house boats, seven dol- 
lars each, twenty-one dollars in all). Nothing re- 
markable turned up until we began to run the junk 
gauntlet near Tien-tsin, and the junks now are not 
so crowded together, and crowding, as earlier in the 
year. But, me being judge, it is as much as a man's 
life is worth to run this junk gauntlet in this narrow 
river, at this season of the year ; and yet this judg- 
ment of mine is not worth much, for very few acci- 
dents, I am told, occur. "We went on — our crew 
shouting, screaming, squealing, and squeezing, a thou- 
sand other crews, with like shouts and screams, that 
shake tender nerves, but seldom scare. A Chinaman 
will make more noise for nothing than any other 
class of men on earth ; and their monosyllables, on the 
key, alto and altissimo, here become terrific. I had 
so many new things to see going up, that I did not well 
see the huge pyramids of salt, piled up on the river 
for miles. Salt is a government monopoly here, as in 



RETURNING SOUTHWARD. 241 

more civilized nations — as in ours, too, with this dif- 
ference, the monopoly, home, being tariffed, while the 
Pekin government here has all the profits. This salt 
is sent all over the empire, np through the Grand 
Canal ; and hence, these huge pyramids of salt on 
the shores of the Peiho, ready to be transported, every- 
where, on the internal waters — as far as Canton, if 
necessary. Here, then, perhaps better than else- 
where in China, in these innumerable junks, one can 
see the vast coasting, and internal traffic of the Chi- 
nese, in comparison with which their foreign com- 
merce is but a drop in the bucket. 

" Home ! Sweet Home ! " Tien-tsin was that 
home to us for a day, on this, our return from the 
great interior. The American flag was floating here, 
on a coast steamer built on the Clyde — the " Sze- 
chuen " — with a Captain (Patterson) all the way from 
the State of Maine ; and, on this Szechuen we forth- 
with made our lodgment (the only " hotel " left by 
the rains), and from there we distributed the beds, the 
pillows, the mosquito nets, the books, etc., that the 
good people of Tien-tsin had loaned us for our river 
voyage. The American Consul here is a very intelli- 
gent Scotchman, with a Chinese wife and Chinese 
children, and speaks Chinese as well as he speaks 
English ; and the American flag was pleasantly float- 
ing over his house. Mr. Moore, too, the agent for 
the American boats here, was kind to us, and his 
hospitality was welcomed in his own house, where a 
freshly-come American wife from Pennsylvania added 



242 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

graces to that home. The missionaries called upon ' ! 
us, and several Englishmen, and the officers of the 
British gunboats in port here — so that, on the decks 
and in the cabins of the Szechuen, we had every 
reason to feel " at home." By the way, these lit- 
tle British gunboats seem everywhere on the coast. 
They are so small that they creep into very small 
ports, and up very crooked and shallow rivers, as is 
this Peiho, while our bigger craft, more stately, it is ' 
true, are but ornaments for Cheefoo, Yokohama, Nag- 
asaki, or Hong Kong. 

But Tien-tsin was to be only a temporary " home," 
for the day after our arrival we were off at the earli- 
est dawn, rethreading the mazes of the crookedest 
river I ever saw, not even excepting the Baritan 
(N". J.). We had laid in a great store of grapes — for 
this is the grape season, and Tien-tsin supplies Shang- ) 
hai, Amoy, Hong Kong, and all the coast, with grapes | 
— while we had plenty of ice ; — and who cannot live 
on ice and grapes in a hot land, with a little good ■ 
bread thrown in ? But there is no stinting on board 
of these foreign ships on the China coast. All live like 
princes on the very fat of the land. The "fare" is | 
enormous in price, but enormous in the supply of eat- ' 
ables therefor. As to the steamers, though, I cannot ii 
say much for them — for, how they do screw, and roll, f 
and pitch, and twist, and turn over, and turn under, \ 
almost ! I have stood the Atlantic and the Pacific : 
without much fuss ; but these shallow waters of the I 
Gulf of Pechili, and of the Yellow Sea, how they do \ 



RETURNING SOUTHWARD. 243 

swell and tumble under you — for, if there is a typhoon, 
or a storm, hundreds of miles off, these sympathetic 
shallows twist and twirl under it, as does a fish when 
there is not water enough to cover him. The " roll- 
ing " Manchu (Captain Steele) has had famous poetry 
made upon the capacity of the ship to roll, and there- 
by has an envious preeminence in that bad way ; but 
the Manchu rolls no more than the Shantung or the 
Szechuen. They all roll, and roll, when there is a 
breath or a zephyr to roll them, and will forever roll. 
We. had a sort of a race from Tien-tsin to Chefoo, 
and from Chefoo to Shanghai; some eight hundred 
miles, or more, in all. The British flag is in opposi- 
tion to the American flag on this coast, and the oppo- 
sition steamers start together, on the same day and 
the same hour, with the understanding, however, that 
they are not to consume too much coal, drive too 
hard, or lower freights or fares. The British steamer 
" Appin " (screw), however, could not screw as fast 
as the American, naturally, which left her ever be- 
hind ; and hence, in order to avoid this disgrace, the 
British owners ordered more coal, more fire, the more 
to hurry up on the course. The American steamer 
could not permit the honors of the past to be with- 
drawn, and so we piled on more coal, and had more 
fire, for at least three hundred of the latter part of 
the eight hundred miles, and beat, of course, in the 
arrival at Shanghai, only a half hour, not an hour at 
the most. The race then became very exciting, for, 
except at night, we were always in sight. 



24:4: A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. ■ 

We stopped at Cliefoo only two or three hours on c 
our return, long enough, though, to see the American 
Consul, Mr. Wilson, and to have long talks with 
other Americans, among them a very intelligent 
young man (Mr. Holwell), who is employed in the 
Chinese custom-house, which, by the way, is run 
altogether by foreigners — an Englishman (Mr. Hart), 
in Pekin, at the head, and Englishmen and Ameri- 
cans, and Frenchmen, and Germans are scattered 
everywhere through the treaty ports, to collect Chi- 1: 
nese customs. The Chinese, I infer, have reached i 
the conclusion that they themselves were not sharp 
enough to match smuggling Yankees and John Bulls ; jl 
and hence they employ foreigners to collect their 8 
duties on imports and exports, who, save in, and 
about Hong Kong, have now stopped all smuggling, 
except in opium, the duty on which is so high as to |i 
be irresistibly tempting. Mr. Holwell is one of the 
employes at Chefoo. 

This place, Chefoo, in the province of Shantang, ' 
where Confucius came from, is one of the rich prov- 
inces of China. Its exports for foreign use are mainly 
Pongee silks, which cost here, from three dollars and p 
fifty cents to six dollars for nineteen yards — silks, by f 
the way, admirable for our Southern and Western 
climes, and for umbrellas and sun-shades, and forf 
travelling dresses in the North ; — and straw braid, of lj 
which our straw hats and straw bonnets are made in 
Connecticut and other parts of New England. It is } 
cheap enough here, but with the thirty per cent, duty 



RETURNING SOUTHWARD. 245 

on it in America, and with freight and other charges, 
it becomes dear there, and thus doubles or triples the 
prices of our hats and bonnets. 

I am grieved to say that I have not seen, since I 
left Shanghai, the American flag on but one vessel, 
save those on the American line of steamers, no more 
of which can now be built in America — all, alas, 
hereafter to be built on the Clyde, or elsewhere in 
Europe ! Our sailing vessels have been recently driven 
off the Chinese seas, which, originally, under Boston 
and Salem enterprise, were once almost our seas. 
But few or none of our drills now clothe the millions 
of the Chinese Empire. Our cotton manufactures of 
all kinds are being superseded by England and Ger- 
many. True, man is a little cheaper in Europe than 
in the Northern and Western parts of America (not 
South) — but machines, not men make drills, and 
sheetings, and shirtings ; and they make them so cheap 
that even the Chinese and Japanese, where man is 
not worth half as much as horse, or mule, or donkey, 
cannot compete with machine. "What make our drills 
dearer are taxes on coal, iron, steel, wood, food (fish 
and potatoes, the great food of the Eastern manufac- 
turers), for machine work is so much cheaper every- 
where than man, that man nowhere can come into 
competition with machine. We make the machine 
dearer and dearer, and hence we are driven off the 
seas, and, alas, off the land, too ! But for the Ameri- 
can lines of steamers here, now run, under American 
captains, by Chinese and Malays, mainly, the flowery 



246 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN. 

flag (the name the Chinese give our stars and stripes) 
would hardly be seen on the Chinese and Japanese 
seas. These live independent of home, free from the 
tax oppressions of home, and spread far and wide the 
American name and fame, despite the ingratitude of 
that home. Their ship stores cost not half ours cost at 
home. Their copper, and rigging, and machinery, not 
half of ours. The Germans, I may as well add here, 
are engrossing, in their sailing vessels, much of the 
coasting (treaty port) trade of China. Their mer- 
chants live less expensively. Their vessels are sailed 
cheaper, and they have smaller craft for navigation 
in the smaller ports of China. 

But, this is out of place. I am a traveller, not a 
political economist, now — -a sketcher, scribbler, only, 
if you please, not an essay writer. 



LETTER XXVII. 

T RINGS IN SHANGHAI. 

Shanghai.— Its Enterprises and Surroundings.— The Hot Sun of Shanghai — Turning 
White Men Yellow. — The City Government of Shanghai. — Eastern Hours for 
Breakfast and Dinner. — The Great Commerce of Shanghai. — Much of it passing 
into Chinese Hands. — Tea Trade. — Tea-Tasters. — Telegraphs to, and from Shang- 
hai. — Tea Steamers up the Tang-tze. — Foreign Schemes to dodge the Fung 
Shuey. — Hostility to Electricity. — The Telegraphs from Shanghai via Nagasaki 
and Yladivastock, in Eussia. 

Shanghai, September 12, 1871. 

Shanghai I gave a bad name to — sick, as I was, 
under the red-hot flaming suns of July. Fresh from 
the North now, full of the breezes of Mongolia, with 
some oxygen in my veins, not all hydrogen, as in 
July, I begin to think the place habitable, not infer- 
nal (from its sun) ; and the thickly-scattered dead Chi- 
nese, in coffins, above ground, all about the drives 
of Shanghai, do not look so like having me soon 
among them as they did six weeks ago. Nobody 
that I knew in July is dead since I went North ; and 
hence, I reason, death is not the inevitable fate of 
all who enter Shanghai in July. Upon the whole, 
the place is a model place, save and except that sun 
— that red-hot, fiery, furious sun — that only a two- 
story pith hat, a double umbrella, and goggles, enable 
you to live under, with white shoes on, in white linen 



248 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

only, and no shirt, nearly as Japanese and as Chinese 
as possible, free from that European discipline, which 
has established the unnatural law that clothes in hot 
climates are indispensable. By the way, what is the 
matter with these Eastern suns ? There is not a hot 
place in the United States, from ISTew Orleans to 
the Geysers in California — though the thermometer 
makes nothing of running up to 118 — where a straw 
hat, under that sun, is not endurable ; while here, you 
would soon run mad, in a straw hat, under the same 
sun. The sun is the Caucasian's mortal enemy here, 
while the Mongolian (has he a thicker pate ?) needs 
no hat, seldom, has a hat ; nay, on the contrary, with 
shaven head, accepts harmlessly the full blaze of the 
noon-day sun. The atmosphere here must make 
these Eastern suns so much hotter than our "Western 
suns, under the same indications of the thermome- 
ter. The very reflection of them, sometimes, gives 
the Caucasian the heat-apoplexy, and almost instant 
death. I was constantly threatened with it in July, 
though never venturing out of doors till the sun was 
setting, or, before it was much risen in the morning. 
This very reflection of the sun, however, which I 
have seldom faced, has almost made a yellow man 
of me, and I expect, hereafter, to stand high with 
my colored brethren. 

But to redeem Shanghai from my July injustice, 
I must say, it is a charming little Pedlington. Every- 
body knows everybody, and everybody talks about 
everybody. The people are all " tip-top," and all are 



THINGS IN SHANGHAI. 249 

aristocracy, and there is no commonalty. It is a 
community of clever merchants, with the prettiest 
wives they can tempt out from America, and Eng- 
land, and Germany, all struggling to get rich, and 
all fighting for Sycee and Mexican dollars, and all 
happy in the surety, they will be rich some day — then 
go home, and be buried under ground, not as here, 
on the surface, in a two-storied coffin, with a cord of 
wood or more in it. Shanghai, I think, is the best 
governed little city I ever saw. The whole Cauca- 
sian race, with an exceptional French " flare-up " now 
and then, live in perfect concord, and govern the city 
family, not as politicians, or statesmen, but as Abra- 
ham, Isaac, and Jacob governed their flocks of sheep, 
and of men and women. The streets are as nice 
and neat as a parlor. The police drive away, or ward 
off nearly all crime. The charitable institutions are 
many. The English Episcopal Church here is a sort 
of cathedral, in a large, open ground, which must 
have cost thousands and thousands of Mexicans to 
build. There are few handsomer churches in New 
York than this Episcopal church here. The mer- 
chants, though thinking only, and struggling only, for 
Sycee and the Mexican, nevertheless live like princes. 
But what abominable hours they keep — breakfast, or 
tea, or coffee, and toast and eggs, at nine a. m. ; break- 
fast again at twelve, or one, on every thing, with wines 
from everywhere, and dinner at 8 p. m. Then all go 
to bed after that, with overflowing stomachs, well pre- 
pared for nightmare that night, and dyspepsia or 
12 



250 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

fever next day. They have no evenings. There is 
no social visiting at night. Their exercise and air 
are taken as the sim is setting, and after that they 
eat, and eat, and drink, and drink — and why don't 
they die % But, the fact is, this hot climate is an ex- 
ception to ours. The more you eat here, the better 
you seem to be off. As hog and hominy are indis- 
pensable for our Southern negro, even in July, so 
beef and mutton, if not pork, seem indispensable 
here. The drinking that would kill us Americans is 
here done with apparent impunity. The water itself 
not being fit to drink, everybody drinks soda water, 
or Bass's beer, or London porter, or claret, or sherry, 
or port, or brandy, and none seem to kill. London 
porter, half death in our bilious climate, in July, is 
here, in July, the staff of life. I think I owe to a 
bottle of it per day (which I could not drink at 
home) the capacity to exist here, in July. 

The commerce of Shanghai reminds one of New 
York in its better (shipping) days. The river is full 
of ships from all parts of the world but ours. Now 
and then, there is the American flag, or an Ameri- 
can sailor (A. A. Low & Co. keep the flag alive), but 
few and far between are our ships. England is here 
in all her ocean glory. Shanghai is to this land, 
with its great river (the Yang-tze), what our New 
Orleans was to the Mississippi, in its palmier days, I 
and before its trade was diverted by railroad. The j 
commerce of the world rushes here to gather the teas i 
and silks of China, and the exports and imports are j 



THINGS IN SHANGHAI. 251 

enormous in value, more especially to and from Eng- 
land. Hence, the operations of exchange in banks 
are very large, and the mere commissions upon trans- 
actions make the fortunes of many. Trade, however, 
here, as everywhere in China, is rushing from the 
foreigners more and more into the hands of the Chi- 
nese. They buy all the tea from the farmer ; they 
pick it, and sort ifc, and sift it, prepare it for, and 
bring it to, market ; and some of them now are think- 
ing of establishing their own agencies in London, 
Liverpool, and New York. They sell now to for- 
eigners by "musters" — that is, by sample — and 
every tea mercantile establishment here has its tea- 
taster who tries the tea, and buys it from these " mus- 
ters." ISTo merchants are keener, or sharper, not 
even the Yankees, than these Chinese merchants. 
The " tea-tasters " here are great institutions. They 
arrange twenty or thirty tea-cups in rows, with cov- 
ers over them ; then pour on water of a given heat ; 
then take a minute-glass, and, measuring the time, 
keep it just so long under cover, when they taste 
and smell, and then make record of the quality and 
value of the tea. And now, don't let every old lady 
in America turn up her nose at tea, when I tell her 
that, in the packing of the teas in the tea-chests, the 
naked-footed coolie (Chinese workie) jumps on the tea, 
and tramples it into the chest with Jris feet and toes, 
just as sugar is trampled in elsewhere, or as bread 
is made, in hot weather, in a baker-shop, in Chicago, 
or New York, or Boston. Tea and sugar are good, 



252 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 



nevertheless, despite the dirty coolie in China, and 
the dirtier African in Cuba — are they not ? Teas, 
too, I have forgotten to state, are heated, toasted, 
and baked in firing-pans, the better to stand the 
long voyages ; and hence, the tea we drink at home 
is not the un cured, the undoctored tea the Chinese 
drink here. The green teas are especially doctored, as 
well as the scented teas ; but, as I never drink them, f 
I won't hurt the feelings of those who do. 

Shanghai is now, by telegraph, within the reach 
of " all creation ; " and hence, this telegraph is mak- 
ing some mischief in the tea-trade, as it does, on the [ 
start, with all the trades elsewhere. The costly tele- 
graph dispatches must fly often here, to and from 
London and ISTew York. Reuter tells us the great f 
news items, by telegraph, in joint-stock telegrams; 
but the prices of teas and silks in the great markets 
of the world are secrets to the trade, which each house 
itself pays for. The British, this year, have run 
through here some five or six steamers, from Hankow, 
the headquarters of the tea trade on the River Yang- 
tze, to Liverpool and London, and they have made 
the voyage in fifty or sixty days, through the Suez 
canal. These movements threaten a revolution in 
the movement of teas. You have doubtless noticed 
how the Pacific Mail steamers to San Francisco have 
been crowded with teas this summer, while extra 
ships have been put on, and they have not been able 
to carry half away in the season when wanted. 

The telegraph has recently been branching off 



THINGS IN SHANGHAI. 253 

here in all directions, save that of China, where over- 
land electricity is at a discount, in consequence, as I 
have shown you before, of its hostility to the t; Fung 
Shuey," the wind and water superstition of u the hea- 
then Chinee." There is a scheme on hand among 
some of the pro-Chinamen, which I think will, sooner 
or later, dispose of this superstition ; and that is, to 
employ Chinese leading men on the routes to build 
the telegraphs, and then to Jceep them in order, pay- 
ing them, for the guarantee and protection, more 
than it is worth. " The devil " (Fung Shuey), it is 
thus thought, will be " whipped around the stump." 
The god of silver (there are no gold gods here — we 
never see gold as money) will thus get around the 
god of wind and water. Shanghai, New York, San 
Francisco, Oregon, and Vancouver's Island are now 
telegraphically linked, under the Pacific and Atlantic 
Oceans. The Danish Company (it may be Russian, 
under cover), that stretched the wires by sea from 
Hong Kong to Shanghai, has now not only con- 
nected Nagasaki (Japan), but run a line from Naga- 
saki, by sea, up north to Yladivastock, a seaport on 
the Pacific (Russian) coast, whence already, six thou- 
sands miles nearly, is a wire to St. Petersburg, and 
thence all over Europe. Thus, Shanghai, Hong 
Kong, and Nagasaki have now two ways of reaching 
Europe — one by the Indian and Red Seas, the other 
overland through Russia — two strings to the bow. 
The indispensable link now is, though yet wanting, 
the link from San Francisco, by sea, over to Asia, 



254 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN. 

then through Russia, so that in case of European 
wars there will be two strings to the American bow. 
Russia and the United States together must make 
that link ; for no private company, for years, would 
it pay, in consequence of the sparseness of popula- 
tion. Two great friendly people like the Americans 
and Russians, with their two great institutions (the 
two D.'s), cannot afford thus to live apart, or to think 
and to breathe only through Europe. 



LETTER XXYIII. 

FROM TEE ENGLISE COLONY OF EONG KONG. 

How Screw-Steamers roll. — Cabins, Hot, Hotter, Hottest. — Chow Chow excellent.— 
Sleep in a Stew Prison.— The Great English (P. & O.) and French Lines of Steam- 
ers in the East.— Hong Kong.— Typhoons here.— The City the Kefuge of the 
Eefuse Chinese. — Curious Intermixture of Population. — The Coolie Emigration 
here. — The Dialects of China.— Pidgen English. — Chinese Kitchens and Cooks, 
etc., etc. 

Hong Kong, September 20, 18*71. 

This place is some fifteen thousand miles, or more, 
from New York — the way I am going home, via Eu- 
rope ; but, nevertheless, it is very European. I was 
" steamed " into the city at night-fall, just as the 
innumerable gas-jets were illuminating the houses on 
the side-hill streets, and the effect was very beautiful. 
The eyes long used, or only used, to oil or tallow-dips 
become electrified by gas-jets; and hence Hong 
Kong, as I entered into it by gas-light, seemed like 
fairy-land. The Erench steamer Phase, of the quon- 
dam Messagerie Imperiale, now t>nly "maritime" (a 
name that is likely to stand, as it may be both Csesar- 
ian and Republican), was the steamer in which (some 
eight hundred and seventy miles) I came down 
south, to this, the latitude of Havana — (fare, $60) — 
in which the chow chow (that is the only word Euro- 
peans use here for feeding) was excellent, the sea- 



256 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

manship good enough, but the sleeping, in the hot, 
sub-aqueous cabin, almost infernal. The steamer — 
long, lean, lank — was lawless when the wind blew, 
and rolled so that the port-holes of our stewing pris- 
ons were always shut, unless one wanted to be in 
a salt-water bath all the night. Think, in the lati- 
tude of Florida and Havana, of being thus shut up, 
and in a boat whose iron sides had been so heated by 
the Shanghai suns, that only an arctic winter can well 
cool them off! The fact is, while England and France 
may be, nay, doubtless are, great on " the hulls " of 
steamers, they know nothing, this way, at least, of 
interior accommodation. The " Phase " was superb 
above water to live in ; but uninhabitable down un- 
der water, in the sleeping cages in which we were 
cribbed. The success of our American steamers on 
the Yang-tze, on the Peiho River, the Yellow Sea, 
and the Canton River, has arisen mainly from the 
fact that our carpenters know how to build cabins — 
a lesson yet to be learned in England and France, so 
it seems to me. There are two powerful lines of 
steamers running from China and Japan, through 
the Red Sea, to Europe — the English line known as 
the P. & O. (the Peninsular and Oriental), and the 
French line, the Messagerie. They run once a fort- 
night each, and so give the whole East a weekly mail 
between them both. Both are largely paid by their 
respective Governments — the French, however, pay 
the most, who, though they have the best steamers 
here, because the newest and latest styles, have the 



FROM THE ENGLISH COLONY OF HONG KONG. 257 

least commerce. Nevertheless, in silks they are well 
freighted, for their silks go up the Adriatic into Ger- 
many, as well as to France and Italy. The French 
gave us French chow chow, with light wines and beer ; 
and John Bull, roast-beef, beef-steak, plum-pudding, 
etc., etc., but no wine nor beer. The P. & O. line is 
subsidized by the English Government, $2,500,000 
per annum. 

As for this British Colony of Hong Kong, all 
under the British Government — with Sepoys and 
Sikhs here for soldiers as well as Britons — it is diffi- 
cult, in a small space, to sketch for you a comprehen- 
sible idea. It is a little island, built on the side of a 
great hill, which runs up to a peak, and at the bot- 
tom of that big hill, and on the sides and fissures of it, 
are some of * the prettiest architectural displays you 
see anywhere, except in the palatial streets of Italy. 
5Tou look out of one window, and you look on the 
harbor and the sea ; and hence, at times, when the 
wind is from that way, you feel the fresh breezes of the 
sea. You look out of another window, and you look 
up the sides of the mountain, with houses overtop- 
ping yours, the peak overtopping all. The streets are 
as good as money can make them. Sewers are in all 
quarters, and water flows down in pipes from the hill 
sides, into your closets and bath-rooms; and that 
great scarcity of the East, and therefore that greatest 
of blessings, runs into your rooms abundantly, fresh, 
pure, healthy — so that, if you 'have been famishing 
for water as I have been, now over two months in 



258 A SEVEN MONTHS' KUN. 

China, you drink and you drink here, and you bathe 
and you bathe, for the mere fun of it. Hong Kong, 
you thus see, is a beautiful little place, with some 
five thousand Europeans in it, including the garrison, 
with twenty Chinamen, or more, to one European. 
The Government buildings here are handsome, and 
the public grounds are handsomer. But my descrip- 
tion may be rosy — for I have been so long wandering 
in nasty Chinese places, that this place not only 
seems to be a home, but a sort of heaven. The hot 
season is nearly over. The monsoon is changing, and 
brings down an occasional cool breeze from the north. 
The society is attractive and hospitable ; but, perhaps, 
what is worth more than all to make a man's eyes see 
every thing in rose-color, is — I am well. Some of 
the dwellings of merchants here are truly palatial. 
I am a guest in a house originally built by Dent & 
Co., which cost here over a quarter million of dollars, 
where labor is so cheap — now, however, cut up, after 
the failure of that great house, into three establish- 
ments ; but those left are all palatial. When money 
was made here, without rivalries — without Chinese 
or other serious competition — men could afford to 
build such palaces to live in ; but that day is over 
now, never to return again. 

Fortunately for me as a voyager, thus far I have 
dodged typhoons, as well as escaped earthquakes in 
Japan ; but I see here now, as I saw in Hiogo, Japan, 
the terrible power and devastation of these typhoons, 
of which all in the East, but more especially the na- 



FROM THE ENGLISH COLONY OF HONG KONG. 259 

tives, live in affright, if not horror. Abont two 
weeks gone by, a typhoon knocked up here, the Pra- 
ja, or Bund, or Quay, as we would call it, and spread 
devastation and death far and wide in the harbor. 
The crippled ships now in, and others coming in, 
show the typhoon's power at sea, while many have 
gone down — junks certainly — never to be heard of 
again. Steamers, however, escape them better than 
any other craft. The barometer forewarns the navi- 
gator, hours ahead, of their approach, and while a 
ship can only go as the caprice of the wind directs, 
the steamer chooses her own place to dodge the ty- 
phoon at sea, or the harbor to anchor in. Huge 
granite stones, well laid on the Pray a or Qnay here, 
were torn up from their places. Ships at anchor 
were drifted about as if playthings. The loss of life 
was small among the Europeans and Americans, but 
great among the Chinese, who have no newspapers 
to record in detail their calamities ; hence, we never 
know any thing. of the extent of their sufferings un- 
der these typhoons, or under the floods. 

There is a great outcry here, just now, against 
crime and criminals, and the Chinese, and the police. 
All the rogues and rascals of China that can elope 
from home run* here to hide, or for protection 
against their own mandarins. Hence this city is 
full of Chinese burglars, and thieves, and murderers, 
even. I see to-day two or three hundred of these 
criminals chained together to wheelbarrows, at work, 
wheeling dirt to fill up the excavations created on 



260 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

the Quay by the typhoon. They were all under the 
command of negroes, mainly from Jamaica, who, with 
whip and musket in hand, keep order, and make the 
criminals work. The fact is, Hong Kong is a great 
" sore " in the Chinese system. European law does 
not fit Asiatic courts ; the trial by jury is an unnatu- 
ral graft here, and imprisonment for crime is often 
a blessing to a half-starved Chinaman rather than a 
curse. These burglars, some of them, are so expert 
that they grease themselves all over, in oil, and then 
enter naked the warehouses, so that, if caught, they 
can slide away — there being nothing to hold on to 
except the pig-tail, which is carefully rolled up. In 
walking the streets here, one sees the motleyest of all 
populations. There, is the American, the Englishman, 
the Scotchman, the Irishman, the Frenchman, the 
German ; and there, are Ah Sin, Hang Wang, Hi 
Gang, Pe Tow, Tai Ling, Sing Shun, — with Parsees, 
Sikhs, and Sepoys from India, negroes from the West 
Indies, Malays, Manillamen, bastard Portuguese and 
Spanish, etc. There, is the Chinaman, with his pig- 
tail and his fan, and the Parsee, with his long, black 
paper hat, or the Sikh, with his turban, or the Sepoy, 
in his cap ; and there, comes the American, or Eng- 
lish stove-pipe hat — a curiosity here, attracting at- 
tention, where all wear pith, or straw, or felt. The 
" stove-pipe " now looks as ugly, to my eye, as the 
" rough-and-ready " in America, or any other like ug- 
ly contrivance for the head. There is no universal law 
here — no fashion for hats, it seems. Every one wears 



FKOH THE ENGLISH COLONY OF HONG KONG. 261 

what that one fancies. Linen is the great article of 
men's dress in these latitudes, and most of them ap- 
pear all the time in white. The apparel is not costly 
here — pantaloons, $2 and $2 50 ; coats, $3 ; vests, 
$1 50, etc. But Hong Kong, you will remember, is 
a free port — no tariffs, no customs, nor custom-house 
officers — and it is the great smuggling entrepot, too, 
for the whole of this part of the East, more especially 
in opium, on which, out of Hong Kong, there is a 
very high duty, but not often paid by the Chinese 
about here. 

This city, with Macao, some thirty miles off, is the 
headquarters of the coolie emigration to America. 
The Northern and Central Chinese do not emigrate 
by sea ; but the Southern Chinamen long ago began 
to go off to Singapore, Cochin China, or elsewhere 
in the "West ; and hence emigration for him to 
America was not so serious a matter. From Shang- 
hai and the Northern Yang-tze Kiver, there is no 
emigration. No Chinaman there can be induced to 
emigrate to the United States. No Pekinese ever 
turn up in the United States, save those that once 
came over with Mr. Eurlingame. The fact is, the 
dialects of the Chinese Empire are so conflicting, that 
one province can scarcely understand another ; and 
hence there is little or no social communication be- 
tween the North and the South, or the East and the 
West. The Cantonese cannot understand a word, or 
scarcely a word, of Pekinese, and vice versa. There 
is a mandarin language, which all officials under- 



262 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

stand, and, more or less, all the intelligent men of 
China ; but, nevertheless, China is thus more cut up 
than Great Britain was thirty years ago, with its 
Welsh, its Gaelic, its Celtic, its Yorkshire and Lan- 
cashire dialects, which, though spoken then in the 
heart of the island of Great Britain, outsiders could 
scarcely understand. The common mode of commu- 
nication here between the foreigner and the China- 
man is, in " Pidgen " (not Pigeon) English — the word 
" Pidgen " being the Chinese comprehension of the 
English word " Business." This Pidgen English is 
now the universal dialect between foreigners and the 
Chinese. All get along with it very well, though it 
is nearly as incomprehensible to my unaccustomed 
ear as the Chinese itself. The " Compradore," that 
is, the Chinese head business man of all foreign 
houses, who stands between the foreign merchant 
and the Chinese merchant in all matters of trade, 
always speaks Pidgen English. These Compradores, 
by the way, are great characters in China, and make 
much money outside of their regular business, and not 
exactly in its line. One of them, whom I saw in Shang- 
hai, was a mandarin, and on extraordinary occasions 
he would turn up in his robes. The Chinese (Can- 
tonese) servants, all over China, make the best ser- 
vants in the world. They do the work of women as 
well as of men. They are most excellent cooks — the 
best of waiters — but it requires several of them to do 
what one American or English servant does in a 
house. Coolie (drudge man about house) will not 



FROM THE ENGLISH COLONY OF HONG KONG. 263 

wait. " It is not his ' pidgen.' " Waiter will not 
do coolie work, none of it, not in the least. Cook 
only cooks, bnt cooks as well as a Frenchman, and 
that is saying mnch in his favor. The butler, or 
head " boy " of a house, who is the universal genius 
of the house, and who has the capacity to do almost 
any thing, if he will — who acts as translator and 
supervisor of all the establishment, and whose " pid- 
gen " it is to see and to keep every thing in order, is 
paid only from $7 to $12 per month, providing his 
own chow chow (food), and in all other respects tak- 
ing care of himself. These servants often have lit- 
tle " larn pidgens " under them — that is, boys learn- 
ing to speak u pidgen English," and to do what we 
call " chores." A Chinese kitchen, from which such 
good things are turned out for the table, is a wonder 
in its way. There is nothing in it but a cooking- 
stove or two, not longer than our American water- 
pail, with a few stew-pans, and many chop-sticks, 
from which few things come the many courses for the 
table, all well-cooked and garnished — nay, even the 
best of beefsteaks, so difficult to have cooked well at 
home. The more I go over the world the more I am 
convinced that Americans and Englishmen are far be- 
hind the rest of creation in preparing their food to be 
eaten. Our " civilization " in this is over a hundred 
years behind the age ; and in this respect the Chi- 
nese are far our superiors. That devil's invention of 
ours, the kitchen range, ought to be kicked down 
where it came from, the lower regions — an invention 



264 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

which, in summer, roasts us out of our houses, and 
in winter consumes as much coal in a day as a Chi- 
naman would need in a month, or a Frenchman in a 
week. Some rich man in America, some coming 
Peter Cooper, in lieu of teaching us how to draw, 
would do better to found a college to teach us how 
to boil potatoes, cook beafsteaks, roast mutton, and 
bake bread, for such a Peter Cooper would be the 
very greatest of American human benefactors. In 
lieu of giving $100,000 to Yale, or Harvard, or 
Princeton, to found a professorship of mineralogy, or 
geology, or other ologies, how much wiser would it 
be to give the $100,000 to establish a professorship 
for beafsteaks, or corn bread, roast beef, hog and 
hominy, etc. But — I am thinking of " home " — not 
in Hong Kong, now, I see. I am off to Canton. 



LETTER XXIX. 

THINGS IN CANTON, 

What Canton is. — Its People, Streets, Sewers, etc., etc. — The Temples of Canton. — 
Sacred Hogs, Confucius and the Stalls. — Caging Students ambitious to be Man- 
darins. — Do Chinamen eat Cats, Dogs, and Eats ? — The Manufactories of Can- 
ton. — The Silk Gauzes. — An Improvised Breakfast on a Pagoda, — No Beasts of 
Burthen in the City. — All Coolie "Work — A Sabbath in Canton. — Boat Lifo 
there.— Ducks and their Owners.— Gates and Police.— No Going Out Nights.— 
No Courting.— No Clubs. 

Canton, September 24, 18 VI. 

"Well, I have never, never before seen exactly 
such a funny place as this is. If I had dropped into 
China this way first, I should have pronounced Can- 
ton to be a nasty, dirty hole, with streets so narrow 
that one could not move or breathe in them ; but 
now, in contrast, I pronounce it to be New York 
(Fifth Avenue) and the surroundings, Boston, Phila- 
pelphia, Baltimore, Edinburgh — any thing, or any 
w r here, but Washington, w r hich, if I am killed for it, 
I must say, in spring, and winter, and summer, looks 
very like Pekin, in its dirt, and dust, and mud. Can- 
ton is the Paris, as well as the Paradise of China. 
The streets are all paved (think of that for China I), in- 
stead of being full of mud holes, that you have to sound 
with a pole to see if it is safe to try to go over them. 
There are sewers under a good part of the great city ; 



2QQ A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

and hence the smells are not frightful here as else- 
where. True, the streets are so narrow that no car- 
riage can enter them, and two sedan chairs pass each 
other with difficulty, and the houses often overtop 
each other, across the streets, in order to keep out the 
sun ; hut this makes cooler streets in hot climates, 
though with less air. I often think, however, China- 
men have not our breathing apparatus, and do not 
need our air. Their lungs live on less ; and where 
we should die, in the close streets of Canton, they 
seem to flourish, like the fungi, in the shade. There 
are eight hundred thousand people living in these 
streets, or in the boats on the river; and hence you 
can imagine the crowds that often must be in these 
narrow places. Whole strings of people, en queue, 
often form in the streets, to wait their chance to get 
along — the coolie with his two water tanks on a pole ; 
the marketman with his greens and his onions ; the 
merchant with his silks and satins, etc., etc. All classes 
wait with commendable patience, en queue, some- 
times five hundred feet long, for the crowds to go by ; 
and there is no pushing, no shoving, though an 
amount of bellowing that re-echoes from the hills 
about Canton as if a storm was roaring below. 

Our party, in five sedan chairs, fifteen coolies to 
cany them, and the guide in advance, began the ex- 
ploration of Canton. Didn't we make a "muss " in 
the streets ! Didn't our train block up the narrow 
ways, stop trade and commerce, bother the market- 
men, and the merchantmen, and all sorts of men ! 



THINGS IN CANTON. 267 

And yet the Cantonese were patient to be kept ten 
or fifteen minutes, till our train could get by them. 
We filled up the Canton streets as a soldiers' procession 
or a funeral procession fills up Broadway ; but there 
was no police to keep order, and we passed on only 
by the courtesy of the people. 

"We first " did " the temples ; but I am weary to 
death of " doing " temples, and you would be wearier 
if I " re-did " them upon paper. Three, however, 
are worth a brief notice — Honam, No. 1 — and that, 
only because there is an artificial fish-pond on the 
grounds, and an eternal clatter of Buddhist priests 
praying all the time, and knocking their heads and 
noses on the floor, with an occasional priest burned 
up now and then, when dead, and a holy hog kept 
sacred to die of fat ; the Temple of 500 Gods, No. 2, 
worth seeing only for the great number of gilt gods, 
and the odd-looking faces they have ; and the Temple 
of Confucius, or Hall of Confucius, No. 3, well worth 
seeing, because every thing created and inspired by, 
or for, Confucius is all there is left of soul in China 
now. The Examination Hall — that is, the stalls and 
halls fitted up for the examination of the thousands 
of young men studying Confucius and Mencius, and 
the other sages of China, and thus aspiring to be man- 
darins — is also well worth a study. There are here 
about nine thousand stalls, in immense corridors — 
stalls about as big as horse mangers — where students 
are put, with only a pen, a paint brush rather, and pa- 
per, to write out themes given them, and kept there 



268 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

a day or two, with little or nothing to eat. Their 
essays, written on certain themes, are examined and 
commented upon by high mandarins, and the best 
scholars pass as fit for the Imperial offices, with tempt- 
ing fields of promotion before them, if they win the 
prizes by well- written essays on the themes thns given. 
These nine thousand stalls are often all filled by the 
aspirants, who, when there thns shut up, go hard at 
work, without the least means of being aided by books 
or persons, and do the best they can. These examina- 
tions have been the life of the empire for hundreds and 
hundreds of years, and if corruption or favoritism do 
not control them, they may save China from foreign 
domination some years longer. 

But more interesting, if not important, to me, 
was the great question, " Do Chinamen really eat rats, 
cats, and dogs f " Our guide took us to the markets 
to see. Sure enough, among beef and mutton, were 
dogs slung up by the hind legs on pegs ; and cats, 
and rats, too ! " Dogs," says the guide, in " pidgen 
English " " are very good ! " The rich eat dogs as well 
as the poor. Dog meat thus is No. 1 — first chop — ■ 
while cat meat is No. 2, and rats, only for the poor. 
Mixed up with rice, and eaten with chop-sticks, the 
mess is said to be very good. I did not taste, nor try 
it, — though, who knows, when we were eating some 
of the nice, rich soup served us, that a rat may not 
have flavored it a little? Thus the fact was estab- 
lished in. my mind that Chinamen do eat dogs, cats, 
and rats. We knew they ate almost every thing else. 



THINGS IN CANTON. 269 

Ducks' legs were for sale in the market — not ducks 
as a whole, but the legs, apart. Immense quantities 
of meat are sold, to flavor the rice dish ; and the 
chop-sticks go from the rice to the grease, and from 
the grease to the rice, with a rapidity that astounds 
us, who try to make rice stick on these chop-sticks. 

From temples to rats — what varied themes a trav- 
eller has to scribble of! From rats to workshops, 
now we went. The beautiful Canton gauzes we see, 
so aerial in a hot clime — the silks, the crapes, the 
shawls, the fringes — all are woven by the poorest 
people, in the dirtiest holes, and by the ugliest looms. 
It was almost impossible to wriggle in, among these 
looms, so as to understand well their work ; but the 
principle of these looms is very like that in the looms 
of our New England great-grandmothers. The shut- 
tle is the same, and the wool and the warp are the 
same in principle — the power applied a little differ- 
ently. There, for almost nothing, work and toil 
these weavers, weaving their lives out to give the 
world luxuries they never themselves enjoy. The 
lacquer shops, where the pretty Canton tables and 
screens are made, were also visited — the carpenter 
shops, the china shops, etc., etc. And Canton is a 
large manufacturing city, living on manufactured 
work, more especially, though, on its chinaware and 
silks. There are great shops here, with rich mer- 
chants over them, who do a big business with the 
whole world. The Sevres ware, the ware of Dresden 
and of Bohemia, and much of the ware of England, 



270 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

are now far superior to Chinese work ; but all was jj 
learned from the Chinese, and the world even yet 
conies here to buy the original things. Here is the 
land of the fire-crackers, and here one eternal " 4th 
of July" is kept up, in one everlasting "snap," 
" snap." I should never weary of shopping in Can- 
ton — (Paris in its palmy days was not fuller of pretty 
shops) — if 1 only had Sycee enough to buy a little 
of every thing. One could exhaust a little fortune 
in fans and ivory work. The jewelry, some of it, es- 
pecially the fretted work, is not to be laughed at. 
One's eyes, especially if the eyes be woman eyes, 
water over the pretty bracelet and ear-ring work, 
carved from crane's beaks, and set well in fretted 
gold. But Europe has caught up with China, and 
Geneva now does this work better, and Yienna too, 
where fans are painted to be prettier than in China. 

The Chinese manufacturer stands still where he 

* 

was hundreds of years gone by, while the European 
and American go ahead and ahead, and never stop 
" progressing." 

But one must eat, alas, as well as see; and to 
show you how things are done in Canton, let me add 
here, we " breakfasted " — that is, had " tiffin," second 
breakfast — three or four miles from " home," on the 
heights of a five-storied pagoda, where the city was 
at our feet, and the country, if graveyards can be a 
country, behind us. Kwan-Yin-Shan is the Chinese 
name of our breakfast pagoda. What I call atten- 
tion to, is the skill with which Chinamen will im 



THINGS IN CANTON. 271 

pro vise you a meal anywhere. In the baskets of 
coolies, strung on poles over their backs, and through 
the narrowest streets, were conveyed to the tip-top 
story of this pagoda, the finest of crockery, the choic- 
est of meats and wines — nothing broken, and all 
served up with skill and care. Thus you breakfast 
or dine almost anywhere, for your meals will follow 
you. You can sup on the river, and live luxuriantly 
in the house-boat, or breakfast, as we did, overlook- 
ing Canton, and enjoy the breezes of the country, 
unobstructed by houses or buildings. 

Nothing more impresses a man in all China than 
the power of men to do business without beasts of 
burthen or vehicles of any kind. A coolie does not 
cost half so much to keep as a horse, or an ass, and 
will live and thrive on what a horse would not touch. 
There is not a cart in all this great city ! There is 
not a road or a street for horses ! Every thing goes 
on men's shoulders, or backs, or heads. The huge 
block of granite is taken up, and taken off, by six, 
or eight, or ten, or more, coolies, with poles. The 
hogshead from abroad goes on the shoulders of four 
coolies — that is, npon their bamboo poles. All the 
loading and unloading of junks is done by coolies 
with their poles. All the commerce and all the trade 
of these tens of thousands of people are done on 
poles, on men's backs. Hence, these coolies become 
wonderfully muscular. Their shoulders must be as 
tough as cast-iron, and the muscles of their legs as 
firm as a boxer's arms. There are no springless 



272 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

carts down here, as in Pekin — no wheelbarrows, as in 
Shanghai — only the sedan, for the transportation of 
passengers, and a most luxurious vehicle it is to be 
carried about in. 

It is the Sabbath, and I go to hear Archdeacon 
Grey preach and pray for the royal family of England, 
in the very pretty little Episcopal Church, built in the 
foreign settlement of Shamien. As all foreigners 
here shut up shop on Sunday, the Chinaman, espe- 
cially the servant, begins to comprehend our one 
Sunday, in lieu of the three hundred and sixty-five 
the Chinese have, or have not, every day in the year. 
Archdeacon Grey preached only to some forty of us 
(there are now not over one hundred foreigners in all 
Canton, so much has Hong Kong killed off the for- 
eign trade of the city), but Archdeacon Grey has 
been in China now some twenty-five years, and has 
caught up, or been infected by, the rhetoric of China. 
I could not understand half what he said— nothing, 
when he was eloquent, and " eloquence," you know, 
is often the death of all sense. The Shamien settle- 
ment of Canton is the beautiful spot of the city. 
The houses are almost all palaces, the walks and gar- 
dens as useful and as pretty as taste and climate can 
make them. Shamien was built up by the English 
and French Governments from a mud-flat island, and 
the filling of it .up cost some $325,000. All the 
merchants left in Canton are now there, except the 
two American houses of Smith, Archer & Co. and of 
Eussell & Co., who have built upon the old original 



THINGS IN CANTON. 273 

Factory site, associated now with, so much of Chinese 
Canton history. 

The boat-life of Canton is " very peculiar." Thou- 
sands and thousands live on the river. What they 
do for a living I could not well find out, for there is 
not enough boating or ferrying " to pay," nor enough 
fish in the water to feed them. True, the ground- 
rent and the house-hire are nothing — and the wharf- 
rats, and cats, and dogs may supply the meat — but 
who will supply the rice ? Nevertheless, these thou- 
sands live, and seem to thrive, and certainly look 
happy. Canton, however^ is the happiest-looking 
city I have seen in China, and everywhere, the peo- 
ple seem ready for fun. Children are born in the 
boats, and live all their lives in the boats — and the 
mother of them often rows, or sculls, with a child 
strapped on her back. Upon some of these children 
are tied bamboo floats, so that, if the darling tumbles 
overboard, it is easily fished up and in. On these 
boats, too, they raise ducks and chickens ; the ducks 
are sent out in the morning to feed in the marshes 
round Canton, and, just before sunset, the man who 
has charge of them blows a shrill whistle, and the 
ducks come hurrying from all directions by the hun- 
dreds. It is wonderful to see them separate, each 
duck going for its own boat, and the owner counts 
them as they enter (calls the roll); the last one is 
always taken up and beaten for being the last, and 
the next night they tell me, that that last duck is 
invariably the first. Then there are grand boat 
13 



274 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

restaurants, where parties go, as to Delmonico's, to 
feast free from the dead air of the narrow streets, and 
enjoying the free air of the river. These restaurant 
boats are gorgeously fitted up with lanterns and with 
gilded adornments of many kinds, and they give the 
visitor the best the market affords, not excepting 
even the dogs. I think if I had to live in Can- 
ton, I should prefer the free air of the river to the. 
close air of the streets. At night the river is gayer 
than the city, for the gates of the city — gates by 
the score within the great wall-gates of the city — 
obstruct all night locomotion, while the river is open 
and free. I loved to revel in a house-boat at night, 
breathe the free air, hear the squeaking guitar of the 
Chinaman, see his fire-crackers, peep into his restau- 
rants, hear his babies squall, and the mothers and 
fathers snore. If you do not admire my taste for 
music, reader, you will enjoy the variety I had, will 
you not ? In the streets of Canton you will see, 
every afternoon just before sunset, groups of China- 
men, seated on the highest points they can find, in 
order to catch the evening breeze, ail of them with 
twigs in their hands, and pet birds perched thereon. 
You wonder why the birds do not fly away, but, on ex- 
amining, you find they have a piece of cord tied round 
the leg and then fastened to the twig, allowing 
the birds to fly only three or four feet. Canton city 
is divided, by its streets, into hundreds of compart- 
ments at night, and in, or over each compartment is a 
gate, closed at night. For order and peace every 
little community within these gates is responsible to 



THINGS IN CANTON. 275 

the authorities, for there is no local police. The sys- 
tem is somewhat like the old English system of the 
Chiltern Hundreds, and which it was proposed to 
introduce into the Ku-Klux Bill for the benefit of 
the South. It works in Canton well, or ill (?) — shuts 
up the shops at dark, sends people to bed early, pre- 
paring them thus to rise early in the morning, stops 
all night gadding, all theatre going, all soirees and 
evening parties, all courting and billing and cooing, 
brings home husband early at night, and keeps him 
from then straying off.* There is a river police, which 
cruises about the river at night, and bangs into you, 
if you do not sail straight. 

I might scribble pages and pages upon these droll, 
these extraordinary Cantonese ; but I must stop to tell 
you how I got up here, and how go I back — in Ameri- 
can river-steamers, with American captains — boats re- 
minding one of the North Kiver navigation — fare $5 
for ninety miles — but fifty cents for a lower deck 
Chinaman, and one hundred cents for an upper 
decker. The Bocca Tigris — that is, the mouth of 
the river, where the Chinese once had forts which 
they thought would bite like the mouth of a tiger — 
has not a soldier there now, and the British, French, 
and Americans, in years gone by, knocked the forti- 
fications all to pieces. Whampoa, its pagodas, the 
shipping there (not much now) the cane-fields, the 
lychee-nut tree, the orange groves, the very many 
other (to me) unknown strange fruits, would be themes 
to fill letters, if I were writing a book — but I am on 
the wing now, and so must say " adieu " for the nonce. 



LETTEE XXX. 

THOUGHTS ON THE CHINA SEAS. 

The Imitative Powers of the Chinese.— Their Love of Money.— Population of China 
over-estimated. — Pisciculture in Canton. — Chinese Dialects. — "War Talk. —Super- 
stitions of the Ignorant.— Singapore. — The-Malay Divers.— Foreign Commerce. 
— The Census. — The Jungle. — Agriculture, etc., etc. 

Off Cochin China and Siam, and on the \ 
China Sea, October 4, 1871. J 

Afloat as I now am, I have leisure to recall some 
of my Chinese and Japanese reflections, and I am 
availing myself of it, in the British steamer Orissa, 
one of the P. & O.'s, as they call the line of the 
Peninsular and Oriental Steamship Company, which 
has now some sixty steamers afloat here, and on the 
Mediterranean — (fare, by the way, from Hong Kong 
to Brindisi, in Italy, the mail line, now about §450). 

The Chinese impress the traveller deeply by their 
great imitative powers, powers of endurance, and 
wonderful industry. £To people work harder, not 
even the universal Yankee nation. Their love of 
money is beyond what any other people seem to have, 
and they are willing to work for it. Very few nations 
could stand up in competition with them, if they had 
an American education and American training. As 
mechanics they are capable of any thing. Then, they 



THOUGHTS ON THE CHINA BE AS. 277 

can live on little or nothing — on vegetables almost 
altogether ; — and their clothes cost little or nothing. 
Nevertheless, England, Germany, and America large- 
ly find them in these clothes — for, as I have written 
before, the spinning-jenny does not eat at all, or need 
clothes, and the Chinaman mnst have something of 
both. Luxury seems to be forbidden in China. Even 
the rich do not indulge in it, and it is hard to tell, by 
any outward sign, the rich, from the poor man, either 
in his exterior or in his dwelling. 

But the Japanese are by far the most interesting 
people. They have not the solidity or stability of the 
Chinese, but they are a far more interesting people, 
and learn faster and more cheerfully than the Chi- 
nese, of all that is new, and of all that progress, the 
great outside world is making. Both their agricul- 
ture and manufactures seem to me quite superior to 
the Chinese. China is not near as well cultivated as 
I expected to see it, while in Japan, in most parts, 
agriculture is carried to a very high degree of perfec- 
tion. There must be more people to the square mile 
in Japan than in China, and the farms must supply 
more food for the population. The population of 
China must be over-estimated by 100,000,000. There 
cannot be 400,000,000 of people there ; and I doubt 
if there are 300,000,000. Pekin has no two millions 
of people in it, as some say — nay, not one million — 
while Canton must be much the most populous place. 
But, in many parts of China, the struggle for life, or 
to live, seems greater than in Japan. I omitted to 



278 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

state to you from Canton, as a specimen of life op 
living, how fresh, fish were artificially raised in the 
artificial ponds, in, and about Canton, and how the 
surplus are sent to Hong Kong, by steamer, in huge 
fish-tubs, filled with fish and fresh water, and aerated 
by coolies as the steamer goes ; and how, when these 
fish reach Hong Kong, they are " dumped out " into 
fresh-water boats, waiting for them, and thus kept for 
market — mainly for the Chinese, though, for Euro- 
peans do not relish them. 

The Chinese labor under immense difficulties in 
their progress and civilization, from their language 
alone, to say nothing of their pride, vanity, and self- 
confidence, which teach them, yet, that no other 
people know half as much as they do. Their dia- 
lects prevent any real unity of the great empire, for 
the Northern people cannot understand the Southern 
people, and vice versa. What a Pekinese says is unin- 
telligible to the Cantonese ; and one province near by 
often, only with great difficulty, can understand the 
people of another. Where such diversities of tongues 
exist, it is the mandarin of the province that gov- 
erns, rather than Pekin, the head of the empire ; and 
these diversities are not likely to be done away for 
years and years, save through the agencies of rail- 
roads and the telegraph, which the mandarins are 
now disinclined to have. 

All over China, among the Europeans and Amer- 
icans, " war," imminent war, with China seems to 
be pending, judging only by what I hear them say. 



THOUGHTS ON THE CHINA SEAS. 279 

I could not see any real causes, however, for this ap- 
prehension, and the diplomats in Pekin do not believe 
in it ; but war may come, and come very unexpect- 
edly, perhaps, if the superstitions of the Chinese are 
played upon by the more intelligent Chinamen — 
the third- and fourth-rate mandarins — as they have 
been played upon this summer in many parts of 
China. Thousands of the ignorant Chinese have 
been taught to believe that foreigners carry " pills " 
about them to poison the wells, and that the mis- 
sionaries, especially the Roman Catholic missionaries, 
are engaged in kidnapping Chinese children. The 
Pekin government knows better than all this, and 
discourages all such talk ; but the lower mandarins 
of the provinces often keep up these fancies and 
falsehoods, in order the better to have control of the 
ignorant people. Nevertheless, in China there is al- 
most universal reading and writing, and that degree 
of intelligence which comes from these two " B's," 
and which, I think I have written you before, I do 
not deem to be education. 

But I am now steaming far away from China and 
Japan, and going among another people — to India, 
to see the original Indians, and how their British 
masters govern them. Here afloat, then, I will but 
sketch of what I am now passing and seeing. To 
my right is Cochin China and Siam, the land of ele- 
phants, and tigers, and leopards, etc. ; and on my left, 
are the Philippine Islands of Spain, and Borneo, Brit- 
ish and Dutch, native, in part, and the rich Dutch 



280 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

island of Java — a gold mine to the King of the 
Netherlands, as Cuba was to Spain before the rebel- 
lion. The poor Portuguese who, after the Arabs, first 
discovered the East, seem now to have little or noth- 
ing left here, except Macao and Goa, while John 
Bull has gobbled up all, except Java and Sumatra 
(Dutch), and the Philippine Islands (Spanish). 

Singapore, October f J. 

We are just entering the British city of Singa- 
pore, 1,437 miles from Hong Kong, having made the 
voyage from a Friday to a Saturday the week after. 
As we enter, our first novelty is the Malay divers, 
who, in little boats, are swarming about our steamer, 
and diving after every sixpence or penny we throw 
overboard — sure to get them, too, before they reach 
bottom. They are the most wonderful swimmers 
and divers I ever saw, and one cannot help emptying 
one's pockets to see them dive after the coin. These 
swarms of swimmers seem to fill the water all around 
us, and their cries and clamors and intent earnest- 
ness in watching the passengers as they throw over 
their coins, can hardly be described, so furious and 
wild are they in their screams and cries. 

Singapore is only a degree and a half from the 
equator, and hence we have here all the tropical 
productions — with fruits whose very names are un- 
known to us in America. The vegetation is all new 
to me, for I have never before been so near the equa- 
tor; and hence I feel all the enthusiasm, and am 



THOUGHTS ON THE CHINA SEAS. 281 

inspired with all that wonder new-comers in the 
tropics feel. The place itself is beautiful ; and the 
hotel where I am now, " the Europe," immense in its 
extension (but only two stories high), with all " the 
entertainments " a traveller could desire. Singapore 
is the seat of government for "the Straits Settle- 
ment," which includes Singapore, Penang, and Ma- 
lacca, with its Governor and Chief-Justice, a British 
garrison, and all the other appurtenances of a British 
colony. There is here a beautiful Episcopal church, 
a Catholic church also, and the Presbyterians have a 
place of worship near by. As a free port, it is the 
entrepot of merchandise from all quarters hereabout 
— of spices, of pepper, of nutmegs, of sago, of rattan, 
tapioca, etc., etc. There are two American agents 
here, who do an immense business for the United 
States, almost as much as all the English merchants 
do, taken altogether. Nearly all our rattans come 
from Singapore. 

The " Straits Settlement " is a British colony here, 
of which Singapore is the capital. The census re- 
ports 306,776 inhabitants, but from all parts of Eu- 
rope only 1,592, about one in 200 of the whole. 
These are : 

Malays 147,684 

Chinese 114,130 

Klings 20,125 

All other Easterners 23,245 

305,184 
The three settlements are Singapore, Penang, and 
Malacca. The country all about is jungle — wilder- 



282 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

ness — full of tigers, and leopards, and other wild 
beasts ; and we were told we should see them from 
the shores, swimming to our ship, but none have 
been so bold. This jungle is cleared by the Chinese, 
only by the Chinese — the Malays and Klings refus- 
ing to be much else than boatmen, fishermen, sailors, 
huntsmen, etc. The Chinese are, in the main, the 
only farmers ; and the emigration here from China, 
encouraged by the British Government, is very 
great. Anon they " will make the wilderness blos- 
som like the rose," while the Malays would never 
clear the land. 

The cultivation in, and around Singapore is beau- 
tiful. All the equatorial productions abound in one 
eternal summer, with ever-constant rains. The sea 
breezes, however, temper all here, and make it a very 
habitable place. I visited the rich gardens of a 
Chinaman — "Whampoa's, I think — in which, even 
more than in China, with greater opportunities in 
these tropical latitudes, were the peculiar tastes of the 
Chinese gardeners displayed ; but their gardens, of 
which this is one of the best, if not the very best, 
are not to be compared with the landscape gardening 
of England and of the United States. Here we saw 
the pineapple, the cocoanut, bread-fruit, the orange, 
mango, jackfruit, mangosteen, custard-apple, coffee, 
chocolate, nutmeg, clove, cassia, etc. One boast of 
Whampoa, in his garden, is"his hogs in their sties ; 
and I must admit, none bigger or better are ever 
raised in any part of the United States. 



LETTER XXXI. 

FROM CEYLON AND THE BAY OF BENGAL. 

England, Continuous England. — The Steamer Congregation in Ceylon. — A Grand Ori- 
ental Hotel. — Buddhism born here. — Sapphires, Eubies, and Pearls. — The Cinga- 
lese great Cheats. — A Monkey Story. — Curious Boats and Boatmen in Galle. — 
Men here mistaken for "Women, and vice versa. — Madras, and Things there. — 
The Latin Eaces here crowded off by the Anglo-Saxon. — Englishmen here patron- 
ize the Shastra and the Veda, as well as the Bible. — Their Eace kept distinct. — A 
Handful of Englishmen governing a "World. — Juggling in Madras. — Golconda and 
Juggernaut. — Cyclones and the Church at Sea. — Hymns, etc. 

Isle of Ceylon, Point de Galle ) 
(The Cock's Spur), October 15, 1871. \ 

Moke British dominion ! The everlasting Eng- 
lish flag ! From Hong Kong to this Ceylon is three 
thousand and thirty-one miles, and yet, almost all 
the way, it is " England," " England," '« England ! " 
» The Dutch were cleared out of Malacca, and of this 
rich island of Ceylon, and here we are, now, in an 
extended England ! Ear beyond us here, and yet en 
route to England, are Australia and ISTew Zealand — 
Melbourne four thousand six hundred and seventy 
miles off, and Tasmania and New Zealand further 
still ! Here, once a month, five great British mail 
steamers meet — one from China, another from Aus- 
tralia, another yet from Suez and England, another 
from Bombay, and one more from Calcutta. The 
Point de Galle, every two weeks, is a busy place, 



284 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

when four steamers meet ; but once a month, when 
Australia and New Zealand come in, it becomes a 
veritable watering-place, where crowds meet from all 
parts of the earth. 

I am at the Oriental Hotel, landed this morning, 
and just fresh from the English church, where, in- 
cluding the British military, were some five hundred 
people, or more — the men all, or almost all, in linen, 
and the ladies in the showiest robes of summer. 
There is a Catholic church here, a Presbyterian also ; 
but the island is the great fount of Buddhism, from 
whence it was mainly propagated into Japan and Chi- 
na. The Oriental Hotel now — which would do 
credit to Newport or Long Branch — is, on its porti- 
cos, a grand bazaar, Sunday though it is. Rubies, 
and sapphires, and pearls, glitter before our eyes, and 
chains and bracelets of tortoise work, too — with 
Ceylon laces of the Maltese style, quite tempting to 
ladies' eyes. The island of Ceylon is the headquar- 
ters of the pearl fishery, and rubies and sapphires # 
abound in its mountains. "When we remember, now, 
what the poets say of its spices (the odor of which 
they would cheat us into the belief we could snuff 
a hundred miles off), and of its oranges, and cin- 
namons, and lemons, and cocoas, and palms, and 
coffee, we see what a rich island it is — what a jewel 
in the crown of England ! But these rubies, these 
sapphires, these pearls, it is almost impossible to buy 
here — for the Ceylon shopmen and hawkers are such 
abominable liars and cheats, that it is next to the iin- 



FROM CEYLON AND THE BAY OF BENGAL. 285 

possible to trade with them. They start with demand- 
ing twenty pounds sterling for a ruby or pearl ring, 
and they may not refuse a rupee for it (fifty cents), if 
you venture to offer it to them. Ruby rings of glass 
and brass are made in Birmingham to sell here ; and 
they are so mixed up with the real sapphires and rubies, 
that only a jeweller by trade can tell one from the 
other. And how these hawkers and shopmen on the 
porticos of the great hotel persecute you ! 'No matter 
with whom you are talking, or what you are doing, 
they thrust their shell-work, and rubies, and sapphires, 
and laces, into your very eyes, and pertinaciously in- 
sist upon your making some bid to buy. One fellow 
so tormented me with a monkey, for which he want- 
ed " only ten rupees," that, to get rid of him, and to 
keep his monkey out of my eyes, I offered him a sin- 
gle rupee, whereupon he jumped at the offer, and I 
had a monkey on my hands, ten thousand miles from 
home ! The steamers do not take monkeys, even as 
Malay steerage passengers, and so I had to give him 
away, doubtless to be sold again. Birds of the love- 
liest hues and the sweetest plumage were for sale, 
also ; and leopard skins, and tiger skins, and almost 
every other tropical thing, on the grand bazaar. We 
had some young Siamese passengers, on their way 
from Siam to be educated in England, with more 
money than brains, who bought a little of most every 
thing, until their hands became as thickly covered 
with rings as if the rings were a shield. 

Every new country we go to seems to have its pe- 



286 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

culiarities in boats, and carriages, or other modes of 
conveyances. Galle is an open port, but feebly pro- 
tected from the winds, and upon its rocky sides the 
surf furiously beats. The boatmen have here, ar- 
ranged for this sea and this surf, long canoes, like our 
log dugouts, which they steady in the seas with a 
heavy outrigger, hanging over and into the water, 
beyond the reach of their oars. If the gale is heavy 
in full sail, they put out a man or two to sit on the 
outrigger, and as the breeze demands one man, or 
two, they call it a one-man, or a two-man breeze. 
These canoes ride over and through the surf with 
very little difficulty. 

Another peculiarity of this island is, that the 
men wear shell-combs in their hair, and the women 
do not, while the dress of both is so much alike, that, 
in consequence of the combs, the traveller is ever 
mistaking the man for the woman, and the woman 
for the man. But the race, be it man or woman, 
seems bright. Their climate needs but little food, 
save what grows on the cocoa, the bread, or the or- 
ange tree, little or no clothes ; and the consequence 
is, that the main work done is to be done by coolies 
from India, or Chinamen from China. The British 
Government here have regiments of native Ceylon 
" rifles," who, with a few European troops, keep all 
in order. The climate seems healthy on the sea- 
coast and hills ; and, judging by a drive into the 
country, with a view from a hill, the scenery must 
all be beautiful. 



FROM CEYLON AND THE BAY OF BENGAL. 287 

Madras, October 21, 1871. 

In the British P. & O. steamer, the Golconda, 
from Suez and Aden, via G-alle, we embarked on the 
19th for Calcutta, via Madras, where we tarry some 
hours, only to let out British goods in bales. Ma- 
dras is the seat of government of the Madras (British) 
Presidency, over which Lord Napier, some fifteen or 
twenty years ago the British Minister in Washing- 
ton, now reigns. His lordship is reported to be as 
great a beau here as he was in "Washington, when a 
younger man — a great favorite with the ladies, and, 
of course, not so great a favorite with the men. The 
Government House, or Palace, here, and the public 
gardens around, are sumptuously kept up ; but there 
is nothing in the place to see, except the European 
residences on the coast. There are a quarter of a 
million of people in the city, and it is as hot just now 
as hot can be, and the fashionable people have not 
yet come down from " the hills," to their houses on 
the coast. This coast, by the way, is bad, very bad, 
and, in this cyclonic season, perilous. The roadstead 
is all open to the sea, and the winds pour in a surge 
and surf that only native boats, manned by some 
twenty or twenty-five native men, can manage to 
ride over — and this, too, in boats not nailed, but 
sewed together, so that their seams accommodate their 
motions to the surf ! 

This part of India — the Bay of Bengal side, and 
the other, the Arabian, or Indian sea side — is the 
first part the Europeans got hold of, after the Arabs 



288 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

led the way from the Eed Sea. First, came the Por- 
tuguese, with their settlements ; then, the Spanish ; 
then, the Dutch, French, and English — all now lost to 
the Continental nations, except Pondicherry (French), 
on this side, and Goa (Portuguese), on the other. One 
asks, and keeps asking, Why have the great Portu- 
guese and the yet greater Spanish, been almost extin- 
guished in the East, while the British flag rules and 
reigns, here, there, and everywhere? Many say, 
" because of the Roman Catholic religion ! " Non- 
sense. The Dutch have not been Roman Catholics, 
and they have nothing left but Java and Sumatra. 
The English here are, in religion, Roman Catholics, 
Hindoos, Mohammedans, Buddhists, Parsees, any 
thing and every thing, to keep power. They patronize, 
uphold, and vindicate gods of all sorts, from .Vishnu 
to Buddha, for the sake of mammon. The Yeda and 
Shastras are as good as the Bible to them, if as well 
bound in gold. In my judgment, the true secret of 
British power here is the Anglo-Saxon inveterate, in- 
curable, indomitable conviction that the white man 
is the intellectual superior of the red man, or black 
man, and was created by God to be his superior. 
This is not Exeter-Hall preaching, I know, which 
has been transferred to the conventicles of the Unit- 
ed States, but it is the conviction of the Englishman 
here, and the conviction and action on which he 
governs with a rod of iron, though a very malleable 
and tender rod, his 200,000,000 of Eastern subjects. 
The Portuguese, and the Spanish, and the French, 



FROM CEYLON AND THE BAY OF BENGAL. 289 

and the Dutch, to some, though a lesser extent, at- 
tempted government in India upon the different 
principle of equality and fraternity, and consequent 
amalgamation, while the Englishman has preserved 
his caste and his race. Just what is the story in 
Mexico and other Spanish American states, is the 
story here — half breeds, quarter breeds, all sorts of 
breeds of Portuguese, Spanish, and French, and 
hence, consequent degradation of the race, and loss 
of empire — while the Briton inflexibly maintains the 
superiority and mastery of his race, and hence has 
extended his empire, almost in the lifetime of many, 
from Madras and the Malabar coast, far, far beyond 
the Ganges and the Indus, — to the Himalaya Moun- 
tains on one side, and to the Persian Empire on the 
other — from Australia and New Zealand — from the 
equator, south, to thirty-five or forty degrees north. 
The merest handful of Englishmen here are governing 
a world, far, far beyond the wildest dreams of Alex- 
ander the Great, or of Julius, or Augustus Caesar. 

But, how one wanders off! I forget I am on 
board ship, buying new Indian native puzzles for a 
few cents, to take home to puzzle Americans, or look- 
ing at native jugglers, who bring snakes (the poison- 
ous cobra) on board ship, to hug and to kiss, and 
to tease to make them swell up and look terrible ! 
I forget I am seeing sticks and swords thrust down 
men's throats, and mango-trees made to grow — lo 
presto ! — on board ship, as a little water is sprinkled 
upon the dry sand in a basket, where we see the seed 



290 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

put in. What a world of brains must have been 
wasted upon these magpie jugglers, to enable them 
to cheat us so ! And then they are nearly naked. 
An anna (three cents) abundantly pays them for swal- 
lowing a sword, or spouting out fire and smoke from 
their nostrils. And such is the greed to earn the 
annas, or to make the sales of puzzles, and baskets, 
and embroideries, and tiger slippers for men, that 
the quartermaster of the steamer has to stand with a 
huge lash, laying it on the backs of these magpies and 
monkeys, to thump them off the chains and rigging of 
the ship, that, otherwise, they would cover like flies. 
The " Golconda " is soon to go by the poetic 
mines of Golconda (all over now), and by the land of 
the car of the Juggernaut — the car yet going, but no 
more fools going under its crushing wheels, there to be 
ground into glory. English government has got rid of 
some crimes in India — such as the victimization of this 
Juggernaut car, such as the suttee, the self-burning of 
the widows to follow their fresh dead husbands to the 
hereafter, — the awful Thugs, and the filling of the 
Ganges with corpses. "We have a pleasant set of pas- 
sengers on board this Golconda, the most of whom, 
now, are Calcuttians, merchants and officials, some 
with their families who have been down to Galle to 
breathe the sea air, or to the Neilgerry hills, in Ma- 
dras. "We read all the histories and novels we can get 
— the latter, especially — and they dance (the Yirginia 
reel, even, here), and they have concerts, and sing John 
Brown, away off here — (with a gusto, too, and as if 



FROM CEYLON AND THE BAY OF BENGAL. 291 

in compliment to me) — whose (Brown's) poor, dead 
" soul," if it was " to march on " in British India as it 
" marched on," for five or six years, in America, would 
not leave a Briton alive to sing or to dance at all. 
And we have service on the Sabbath, from a clergy- 
man on his way, with his new wife, to be settled 
somewhere, he knows not where, in India. Thns, on 
a threatening sea, as we are now, and on a coast, this 
month very perilous from the cyclone, a hymn like 
this, sung by many voices, touched all our hearts : 

Eternal Father, strong to save, 
"Whose arm hath bound the restless wave, 
"Who bidst the mighty ocean deep 
Its own appointed limits keep, 

O hear us, when we cry to Thee 

For those in peril on the sea. 

O Christ, whose voice the waters heard, 
And hushed their raging at Thy word, 
"Who walkest on the foaming deep, 
And calm amidst its rage did sleep, 

O hear us, when we cry to Thee 

For those in peril on the sea. 

Most Holy Spirit, who didst brood 
Upon the chaos dark and rude, 
And bidst the angry tumult cease, 
And give, for wild confusion, peace, 

O hear us when we cry to Thee 

For those in peril on the sea. 

O Trinity of love and power, 

Our brethren shield in danger's hour 

From rock and tempest, fire and foe, 

Protect them wheresoe'er they go, 
Thus evermore shall rise to Thee 
Glad hymns of praise from land and sea. 

Amen. 



LETTEE XXXII. 

BRITISH INDIA. 

England Forever and Ever— 200,000,000 British Subjects— Standing Army of 320,000 
Soldiers. — Vast Imports and Exports. — East Indians. — Monkeys or Men. — Trade 
and Commerce of India. — The Holy Ganges.— English Water- Works on it. — 
Calcutta no longer the " Black Hole " — Hot, not Unhealthy. — The Punkah Fan 
the Great Institution of India. — The Punkah Everywhere. — Tudor and His Ice 
the Great Things of the East.— The Hancocks, the Websters, Nothing.— The 
Tudor Every Thing. — Wenham Something. — Boston Nothing. — The Hoogley 
Kiver and the Cyclones. — Enchanting Approach to Calcutta. — The King of 
Oude. — A Seventeen Days' Hindoo Holiday in Calcutta. — Polygamy and Poly- 
andry. — Hindooism, Buddhism, Brahminism and Mohammedanism. — The 320,- 
000 Standing Army Government of India not a Bad One. 

Calcutta, October 27, 1871 

Englaot), once more, one everlasting England ! 
That little sea-girt island has not only girdled the 
great isles of the world, and* put its stamp upon them, 
but, here am I, in the portals of a British East India 
Empire, the very magnitude of which is astounding. 
Think of it, over 200,000,000 of people, native and 
British in this Indian Government proper, under the j 
British nag ! Satiated with the very vastness of do- 
minion here, the British Crown declines more land, 
and farther or fresher conquests ! It has got all the 
land, and all the population it wants — nay, more, too, 
and refuses, actually, to be bothered with yet more ! 
Think of the revenues and expenditures of this Brit- 
ish Indian Empire, $260,000,000 of our money, incom- | 
ing and outgoing, each. Think of its immense army, 
• 

i 



BRITISH INDIA. 293 

j 

! ! 320,000 soldiers in all, of 'whom 70,000 are European, 
ij the others, Indians, under British officers, all ! Think 
! of a Christian government over 110,000,000 of Hin- 
■ doos, 25,000,000 of Mussulmans, 12,000,000 of Aborig- 
| inal Nothingarians, 3,000,000 of Buddhists, etc., etc. 
What a medley of humanity to rule ! "What a mix- 
ture of laws, as well as of creeds, and of tongues, and 
!j languages ! (There are sixteen, or more, languages 
[I here, that a British ruler ought to learn.) "What a 
! vast trade, some $250,000,000 of imports, and over 
1 $500,000,000 of exports ! The little England at home," 
which governs all this vast territory, and these mil- 
lions of people, dwindles, herself, into insignificance, 
when contrasted with this, her mighty Empire of the 
i East. 

But what a population ! "When I first began to 
hear and see the Indians of the East, in Singapore, or 
in Ceylon, as well as here, rushing about like madmen, 
in boats, around our ship, I could not but cry out, 
" How like monkeys ! What monkeys ! Have they 
immortal souls \ " " Yes," said a good English lady 
by me, " all of them, souls to be saved, or lost, as well 
as yours ! " Doubtless, it is so ; but, nevertheless, as 
first seen on the shore, " What monkeys ! " " What 
wild monkeys ! " How different from the sober, se- 
date, grand, dignified Chinese, and how like monkeys ! 
Rapid conclusions are, however, always perilous ; and 
no nation should be judged by its boatmen or water- 
craft men ; and, therefore, already I begin to see 
India is not a nation of monkeys, but of men, real 



294 A SEVEN MONTHS' KUN. 

live men, and men with souls, too, if they do believe 
in any thing and every thing, in religion, that we 
laugh at, only, or pity. 

The British Indian Government is in Presidencies, 
with a governor in each, and a governor-general and 
council over all. This governor-general has a salary 
of over $100,000 per annum, and lives and moves in 
royal style, to astonish and astound the Indians, if not 
the Britons. Calcutta is the seat of government in 
coolish weather, from November to March, and Simla, 
on the Himalaya range of mountains*, the headquarters 
of the government, during the rest of the year. 
Some of the sources of revenue to support this govern- 
ment are from — 

Opium $40,000,000 

Salt (a monopoly) 30,000,000 

Land 108,000,000 

Customs 12,000,000 

EXPENDITURES. 

Interest on Debt $14,000,000 

Army 64,000,000 

Public Works (1870) 33,000,000 

The government has over 5,000 miles of railroads 
in operation, on which it guarantees five per cent, 
interest to the corporators ; and the huge army of 
320,000 is supported by only sixty-four millions, be- 
cause the native soldiers receive only $3 50 or $4 00 
per month, feeding themselves and their families out 
of that miserable pay, and almost altogether on 
rice. 

"Well, I am on the waters ol the Ganges, the holy 



BRITISH INDIA. 295 

Ganges (the Jordan of the Hindoos), to be buried in 
which is a sure passport to glory ! If glory is yellow 
like gold, the Ganges, then, is glorious — that is, yel- 
low, muddy, dirty. The heathen English here (think 
of it) pump this holy water into reservoirs (some miles 
above this city), and draw it off in pipes, and filter, 
and drink it, and use it for all sorts of unholy, as well 
as holy purposes. They have issued terrible paper 
edicts against throwing Hindoo dead or dying bodies 
into it, on their way to glory ; but, nevertheless, the 
dying as well as the dead Hindoo is yet dumped into 
it, and a police corps has to be kept, especially, to 
sink the dead Hindoo, when his corpse pops up above 
the water. There was a terrible commotion, at first, 
among the Hindoos, when the English first began these 
water-works, and not a Hindoo then would touch, 
taste, or handle the desecrated waters ; but some high 
and lofty priest was tempted to say, the Hindoo god 
would overlook the desecration, and now the Hindoos 
use it just like other people. Of course, the city is 
made far healthier by this use of good water, and the 
sewers carry off the impurities that once fostered and 
created the terrible cholera, and yet alarming diarrhoea. 
Calcutta is no longer the " black hole." Caucasians 
live in it, the whole year round, jolly and hearty ; 
and, though their livers do suffer occasionally, they 
say, nevertheless, they live, eat, and drink here as else- 
where — though, in the drinking of claret, soda-water, 
Bass's beer, etc., the population, in proportion, con- 
sume more, probably, than any other people. 



296 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

Every country or state has its " institutions." We 
have ours in the United States— -peculiar institutions ; 
but the institution here is the punkah. "What is the 
punkah? you ask, perhaps. "Well, it is the great 
blower of India — the institution of the blow-out. We 
fan in America. They fan in Japan and China ; 
but here, the punkah, the everlasting punkah, the 
spread-out, oblong, parallelogram fan, moved by coolie 
power only, fans you, night and day. You wake up 
under the fan ; you rise under the fan ; you break- 
fast and dine under the fan, and you go to sleep under 
the fan. There is an everlasting breeze kept up over 
you by some invisible coolie, hid away, in some hole, 
somewhere. The coolie pulls the fan for two or three 
dollars per month, and finds himself, and clothes him- 
self — that is, in a clout, which costs him about twenty- 
five cents the year. I thought, here, of suggesting 
to some acute Yankee the invention of some pendu- 
lum, or self-moving artificial power, to pull the pun- 
kah, that would do away with the coolie, and send 
him to the country to raise indigo, or linseed, or jute ; 
but the coolie here is cheaper than wood, and no pen- 
dulum clock invention, even from Connecticut, could 
compete with this cheap coolie power. Nevertheless, 
the punkah here is an indispensable institution. I 
am writing now under a glorious breeze — the artificial 
zephyr of the punkah, but for which I should be on 
the sofa, puffing, panting, and struggling for breath. 

There is another " institution " here — a great 
American institution — that is, ice. It is not so cheap 



BRITISH INDIA. 297 

as the punkah, for it conies all the way from Boston ; 
but, to a Caucasian, here, it is about as indispensable. 
The Tudor Ice Company supplies nearly the whole 
East with ice " from Wenham Lake," here, they say ; 
and Wenham Lake, therefore, is better known in 
India than Lake Michigan or Lake Ontario. While 
Winnipiseogee is unknown, "Wenham, dear Wen- 
ham, is cherished, and blessed, and embraced, and 
kissed with a fervor, here, no woman's lips ever felt, 
frigid as is ice. Nearly all that is known in many 
parts of the East, is Wenham, dear Wenham. The 
Quincys, the Otises, the Websters, the Everetts of 
Massachusetts, are all unknown ; but Wenham is 
illustrious — such is fame ! Tudor, too, towers on tur- 
rets far loftier than Bunker Hill ; and where Warren 
never was dreamed of, Tudor stands out as the bright 
Northern Star ! Great is Tudor in the East. 

We Americans meet with some rough misconcep- 
tions of us now and then, among ignorant Europeans 
— not many, however, for our flag, in days gone by 
(not now), spread our name and fame far and wide in 
the East. Once American ships " did " one-half or 
three-fourths of the freighting of the commerce of 
Calcutta ; but, alas ! not now, did I see an American 
flag on the Hoogley. Once we carried cotton, and 
rice, and indigo to England. At one time, this East- 
ern coasting trade was largely in our hands. Alas, 
not now! The misconceptions I allude to come of 
our " ice," and because we hail from a once copper- 
colored Indian country, supposed to be like this. 
14 



298 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

Some few, very few, yet think we are red, like these 
East Indians. More are sure, we are come from a 
Greenland, or a Norway, or Spitzbergen, because of 
our ice. Ice could now be bad as cheap from the 
Himalaya ranges, by rail, as from Boston, or, from 
Hakodadi, in Japan, or, from the Peiho River, China 
— save the return freights to America, which here are 
profitable. Our only exports for India now are ice 
and petroleum, while once the fabrics of our looms 
came into competition with those of England. 

But, before I run on much further, I ought to in- 
troduce you to Calcutta, the metropolis of the 200,- 
000,000 British-governed people, I have written of. 
"We did not enter the portals of Calcutta with first 
impressions very captivating. A cyclone, or some- 
thing like it, kept us in the lower waters of the 
Hoogley Biver, a branch of the Ganges, and nearly 
one hundred miles from Calcutta, from a Monday till 
a Friday. The pilot did not dare take our steamer 
up the Hoogley — ugly, we then pronounced the 
stream. The rain poured down as if all the heavens 
were let loose, and the winds blew, as if they really 
would crack their cheeks. This is customary weather, 
this time of year, when the Southern monsoon has a 
fight with the Northern monsoon for the mastery of 
the winds, in which, of course, just now, the South- 
erner was whipped. But, thanks to our good fortune, 
we had no cyclone. I have dodged both typhoons and 
cyclones thus far, in the East, and feel now quite se- 
cure of not being tossed up in the air, or swashed 



BRITISH INDIA. 299 

over in a mountain wave, by either of them. The 
season for such freaks, out here, is now about over. 
An interesting island, called Saugor, with only a light- 
house on it, and that stockaded to keep out the tigers, 
was all, for four days, that we had to look at ! It is 
an island of jimgle, so inhospitable, and so full of 
wild beasts, that not even an Indian will live on it. 
Several British vessels, and some craft from the Mal- 
dive Islands, were anchored near us, and steam-tugs 
from Calcutta were inviting them, in the calmer 
hours, to be towed up. Saugor, however, and the 
tigers of Saugor, and the rain and gale ended at last, 
and the sun broke forth, if in all its splendor, in all its 
fury, too. Thick sea clothes were laid aside, and felt 
hats, and out came the pith-head umbrella coverings, 
called hats, and linen and grass cloth. As the 
steamer ascended the river, fishermen's villages and 
scattered huts began to appear, embosomed in stately 
purlieus, amid trees of shapes unknown before, fields 
of sugar-cane, wide levels of paddy ground, with a 
verdure universal, and as bewitching as in spring 
time. As we neared Calcutta, on a bend of the river 
called Garden Reach, the coup oVmil was enchanting. 
.Palatial-like houses studded the banks of the river. 
There, is the palace of the King of Oude, who has 
only four wives, but as many concubines as Solomon, 
whom the British government support here (after 
stripping him of his kingdom of Oude), at the expense 
of a quarter of a million a year. There, is the Bishop's 
college, where Episcopalians, native as well as Euro- 



300 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

peans, are trained up to preach Episcopalianism to 
Hindoo, and Mohammedan, and Buddhist, and Parsee, 
with but a very poor success, I am sorry to say. And 
then, there are the mansions of the rich merchants, 
the British nabobs, who have hoarded gold, and de- 
stroyed their livers, but who, while living, live here 
luxuriously. Beyond here is the river, covered with 
boats of every conceivable form, and multitudes of 
vessels and steam-engines, while palanquins, buggies, 
phaetons, ghares, hackeries, and other odd modes of 
conveyance, line the shore, and tempt you to land, to 
be carried off into the city. Calcutta has no walls. 
You enter it without portcullis, or any other threat- 
ening fortification. Fort "William, nearly in the 
heart of the city, is strong, well filled with soldiers, 
and, in the event of an Indian insurrection, the whole 
European population could be huddled into its cir- 
cumvallation. 

I have got here, I see now, just in the wrong 
time ; and I cannot get any money to get out till the 
right time comes. This is the Doorga Poohjah holi- 
day week — seventeen days, the Hindoos make of it — 
and no bank or banker opens, and the custom-house 
is shut, till the Doorga Poohjah holidays are over ! 
This is consoling, in a city you get into to get out of 
as soon as you can raise the wind, and from which, 
almost everybody, you would like to see, is gone 
to pass the holidays. If it were not for some ten 
or twelve Christian churches here, of almost all the 
great denominations, I should call this altogether, not 



BRITISH INDIA. 301 

almost altogether, a Hindoo country. Every tiling 
is closed up. There is nothing to get at or into, only 
the exterior to see. But, on Monday next, Chris- 
tianity revives, and the banks and the custom-house 
open. 

Pondering upon this topic, I tumble upon another, 
and that is, what an odd, extraordinarily odd, Chris- 
tian country John Bull has made of this vast India ! 
Polygamy, here, is just as prevalent as with Brigham 
Young, in Utah; but here, not as in Utah, it is 
yielded to, and sanctioned by law ! A Frenchman 
living here, the other day, did not love his own 
French wife enough, not to want another. To win 
that other, a French captivating milliner, he shuffled 
off his Christianity, and put on Mohammedanism. 
The to-be wife and the double husband both became 
Mohammedans. Then, under this British govern- 
ment, it became lawful for him to have two, nay, four 
wives, while, as a Christian, it would have been polyg- 
amy to have more than one. The British press laughs 
at us, because of Indiana divorces ; but all a Christian 
Briton has to do, to be rid of one wife, and to have 
another, is to come to India, turn Mohammedan, and 
then, if he pleases, he can marry four. In the Madras 
presidency, where Lord Napier reigns, there is a sect 
called ISTayers, who observe the Marumak-Kaytam 
doctrine, where polyandry is no offence. A woman 
may have as many husbands as she likes. I only 
suggest this to John Bull, when his press is rather 
hard upon our dark spot, Utah, or, the divorce courts 



302 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

of Indiana. The fact is, the British government, in 
order to keep quiet possession in India, not only keep 
up an army of 320,000 men, but keep up, too, Hin- 
dooism, Buddhism, Brahminism, Mohammedanism, 
and all the other isms. The British government 
rules over such a variety of races, languages, manners, 
laws, and religions, that, in order to live in peace, it 
caters to all. — Curious government, is it not ? The 
Grovernor-Creneral, or Yiceroy, from England — and a 
council, here, created by him — the two legislating for 
all, without any elections, or the bother of them, en- 
force all edicts by an army of 320,000 men. Never- 
theless, the British government has been, in the main, 
a good government for India, for it snatched her from 
the perdition of civil commotions, and secured lor 
the governed, equity and justice, though the land 
robberies perpetrated in so doing have been prodig- 
ious. There are native as well as English-born magis- 
trates in the lower magistracies. There are native 
policemen, and native juries, in some cases; but the 
jury system does not work well, magistrates tell me, 
among the natives here. There are some few natives 
in the high council of state. But in almost all cases 
the officers, civil as well as military, come from Eng- 
land. I do not suppose there are 200,000,000 of 
Indians anywhere so well governed ; and yet, were 
it not for the 320,000 soldiers, ever in arms, the Brit- 
ish flag would not wave a year in India. It hangs 
over a volcano, ever ready for an eruption. But 
good-by for to-day. 



LETTEE XXXIII. 

THINGS AND TEOUGETS IN CALCUTTA 

The Impudent Crows of Calcutta. — How they chatter. — A Drove of Elephants em- 
barking for War.— The " Central Park " and " Hyde Park " of Calcutta.— Funny 
Liveries. — The Trade of the Metropolis of India. — Exports, Cutch, Coir, Jute, 
Indigo, and so on. — The Cocoa-nut Tree. — American Trade. — Assam Tea.— The 
Opium Trade, a Government Monopoly. — The Elocks of Servants in Calcutta. — 
No Women Servants. — All Men. — Men as Washerwomen. — The Woman invisi- 
ble. — English Women going to India. — The Chit and the Coolie.— The Ladies' 
Chit. — Charming Social Life in Calcutta. 

Calcutta, October 29, 1871. 

The morning music of Calcutta is not very be- 
witching. After the loud morning gun from the 
fort, about 5 A. m., which startles, now, before day- 
light, all from their slumbers, comes the "caw," 
" caw," " caw," of great droves of crows, which fill, 
and at times almost darken, the sky. They not only 
keep up a frightful clatter, but they pop into your 
windows, and if you are not watchful while break- 
fasting on the veranda, they will steal your bread 
and toast from the table. Crows are respected in Cal- 
cutta as scavengers, as are dogs in Constantinople. 
Crows and vultures pick up the offal in all directions, 
and do much toward maintaining good air and good 
smells in Calcutta. Hence, the noise and thieving 
'of the rascals are borne with, and they are not shot, 
as they ought to be. 



304 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

I have been to see a drove of elephants hoisted on 
"board of a steamer, to be taken somewhere into Bur- 
mah. Some Indian tribe there has been raiding npon 
British territory, and a little army of natives, and a 
lesser force of Europeans, are to be sent ont to teach 
them better manners. The elephants belong to the 
commissariat, and are to carry the provisions and the 
burdens — each elephant being able to walk off with 
at least eight hundred pounds on his back, besides 
his driver. There were some forty to be hoisted upon 
this steamer, and, naturally enough, the novelty of 
the derrick that lifted them from their feet high into 
the air, was not very agreeable ; but these war ele- 
phants are under good discipline, and do what is bid- 
den. They were fed on sugar-cane, to make them 
sweeter tempered, perhaps, and bathed in the river, 
and washed by their masters, to cool off their temper, 
it may be. 

And I have been to the evening drive — the Cen- 
tral Park and Hyde Park evening show of Calcutta 
— where turn out the fashion, the glow, and the glit- 
ter, and the horses, and the equipages, of this metro- 
politan India. A band of music regales the visitors 
in a garden near by ; and this night, the full moon, 
mingled with the showy gas-light, and the good 
music of a great band, with the novelty of Indian 
carriages in livery, and Indian nurses with European 
children, the scene was not only novel but charming. 
The Indian liveries of " the swells " of the city are 
quite startling. There are two men behind the coach, 



THINGS AND THOUGHTS IN CALCUTTA. 305 

with the driver before — all in a groundwork of white, 
generally with naming turbans and sashes on, but 
with bare legs and naked feet. There are Indian 
native " swells," with their liveries, as well as Euro- 
jDean and Parsee " swells." I have not seen, how- 
ever, the full glow and glitter of this evening drive. 
This is not the fashionable season. " The Court " 
— that is, the Viceroy — is hundreds of miles off, 
among the Himalayas, hunting tigers and leopards 
and other wild beasts; and all that is left here is 
what could not run away. 

Calcutta is a city of great business, as well as the 
metropolis of India. The Ganges and its tributaries 
roll down their wealth here, as well as their waters. 
But the Ganges is not navigable the whole year 
round, like the Mississippi or Missouri (the lower 
parts). Sands and silt fill up its currents, and in the 
dry season, forbid steamboat navigation. There go 
from here rice, cotton, linseed, and almost all sorts 
of seeds, cutch, coir, indigo, dyeing materials of most 
kinds, and many materials for manufactures, among 
which jute has become a great article of export, 
mainly to Dundee, in Scotland, and largely to Amer- 
ica. Of jute, now — and an article of commerce 
scarcely known ten years ago — even excellent colored 
shirts are made, as well as paper. What was worth 
nothing in India but yesterday, is now of great val- 
ue ! The Dundee jute manufactures abound iu Amer- 
ica. Jute, like coir, is a vegetable good for rope ; and 
like the cocoa-nut tree, from j;he fibre of which coir 



306 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

rope is made, jute is good for every thing. There are 
only five or six American houses in Calcutta now, 
and the Greek merchants are crowding them out 
with their immense ready capital, while we, here as 
everywhere else in the East, do business " on tick," 
via London, or through the Oriental Bank and its 
branches in every Eastern city of any size. Oar 
freighting ships have been crowded off ; our exports 
of Lowell and Lawrence goods have been killed ; and 
hence, we must "tick," "tick," "tick," via London, 
as we have not the wherewith here to pay. Tea, As- 
sam tea, especially, is becoming here a large article 
of export to England. It is stronger than the Chi- 
nese teas, and is mixed with them in Liverpool and 
London. There are thirty-one tea companies in Cal- 
cutta, and the Assam, the oldest, divides over fifteen 
per cent. Poor China will be in a bad way with 
British India, if Assam teas ever crowd off Chinese 
teas in the marts of the world — for, now, India sends 
thirty or forty millions of dollars' worth of opium to 
China every year, deriving a revenue therefrom of 
from thirty to forty millions of dollars a year. But 
India is not to have, in +his respect, all her own way. 
The Chinese now are increasing their growth of 
opium, and preparing to supply themselves. But 
what a melancholy trade all this is ! "What death to 
the Chinese, thus to support the nabob governments 
of India ! There is no topic on which Britons more 
dispute, here in the East, than on this opium trade. 
Many merchants will have nothing to do with it ; but 



THINGS AND THOUGHTS IN CALCUTTA. 307 

there are enough left who will. Many denounce their 
own Government for the Chinese opium war ; others 
pronounce the trade immoral and wicked ; but, never- 
theless, rich argosies of opium are ever going from 
Calcutta and Bombay to China. 

Opium in India is a Government monopoly. No- 
body can raise, buy, or sell opium but under Govern- 
ment sanction or authority. The Government fixes 
the price it will pay the planter — a pretty liberal 
price, too — buys all he has to sell, and then sells all 
that to the highest bidder at public auction, when 
the merchant becomes possessed of it, and when he 
sends it in opium ships to the markets of the world. 
To regulate prices, the Government names the num- 
ber of opium bales it will sell every year, and thus 
guarantees the merchant from any supply beyond his 
calculations. From thirty to forty millions of dollars 
per annum are raised by the Government in this 
way; and, "how can we do without this revenue?" 
they ask. " What can we substitute for it % " " "We 
have stamp-taxes, income-taxes, and a salt monopoly, 
now." " What can we pile on, if we take opium 
off?" And thus poor China pays the piper, who 
plays " God save the Queen," in India, from Burmah 
and Ceylon on to the Indus and the Himalayas. Thus, 
in strong money-links the British now have the whole 
Eastern world, Japan alone excepted, and that with 
a perhaps. 

What, among other things, excites the astonish- 
ment of visitors here, are the flocks of servants, yes 



308 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

flocks — swarms, too, I might add — in every house. 
The castes are so strong, and such is the religions 
determination of one caste not to be degraded by an- 
other — so many are the superstitions touching food, 
and even clothes, that a separate servant must be had 
to do almost every class of labor that is servile. A 
bachelor acquaintance of mine, whose income as a 
civil officer of the Government cannot be great, not 
such as the income of a merchant, numbers twenty- 
two in his little bachelor establishment ! Every horse 
has to have a man for that particular horse — certainly 
one, and two, probably — one, to cut the grass for the 
horse to eat, and another to take care of the beast ; 
then the driver or coachman, and then the livery- 
men, two, if not three, in cheap, barefooted liveries, 
to be sure, and not costly, though very showy in 
colors at times ; then, men to pull the punkah night 
and day ; then, his personal man, to stand by him at 
all times. These servants, to be sure, have only six 
or nine cents wages per day, finding themselves, and 
they sleep, by choice, on the verandas, in the open 
air, with no cost, therefore, for room or beds ; but, 
nevertheless, there are so many of them, for almost 
every thing, that they must be costly as well as 
troublesome. Some head butler, however, better 
paid than his subordinates, saves his master from all 
trouble and care ; and when once a household is well 
trained, all move like clock-work, though the ma- 
chinery of the work, it must be confessed, is far 
more imperfect than among the superior, and far 



THINGS AND THOUGHTS IN CALCUTTA. 309 

more intelligent Chinese. Trust these servants, mas- 
ters say here, and then they may be safely trusted in 
their respective vocations ; but doubt them, and lock 
up from them, so as to enable them to shuffle off re- 
sponsibility from the one to the other, then, they be^ 
come thieves of a hard kind. They have little or no 
character at bottom, we are told — no fond — and the 
machinery must ever be well handled, and well oiled, 
to work well in an establishment. 

There are no women chambermaids, or other 
female servants, anywhere in the East, except a very 
few nurses (Ayahs) for children. Men are very often 
children's nurses, in one sense — of course, not in all. 
Men surround American or European ladies, and do 
all their servile work, from that of chambermaid to 
washerwoman. They wash and they iron to perfec- 
tion, even ladies' most complicated ruffles and plaits 
(three cents each is the average price for every thing) ; 
but as they thrash the soiled clothes on the rocks, to 
thrash out the dirt, clothes, under such hard treat- 
ment, of course, will not last long. The wash-board, 
the destructive rubbing machine of our country, is 
unknown here, and the turn-crank washing-machine, 
even if steam-driven, could never compete with the 
paws and claws of " the heathen Chinee," or these 
more heathen Indians. "Women, therefore, are scarce 
luxuries to be seen in these Eastern countries, except 
the very common class, for a true Mussulman would 
almost as lief die as have Christian or Hindoo eyes 
light upon his first, or, forty-first, wife. I have just 



310 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

seen one mnffled-up " better half" (or better one-forti- 
eth, perhaps), on a chair, covered all over with " copper 
plate," " dumped into " the ladies' department of the 
ladies' railroad car, invisible to mortal eyes, even to 
mine, with a double pair of glasses on. These dear 
Eastern creatures never see daylight when men are 
about, and the Hindoo women of high caste are as 
scarce as these Moslem women. What a country, then, 
for men to live in, with no women to see ! More 
especially for European men, whose eyes, long lost to 
the blessing, brighten and glisten, therefore, whenever 
that dazzling article of creation comes along. They 
do say — it must be scandal, though — that English 
women come out here to India, for this very reason, 
to tempt forlorn, deserted bachelors into being hus- 
bands ; and it is hard, very hard, for the forlorn bache- 
lor, not to take, for better or for worse, even the spin- 
ster who has run out her career in London or Brigh- 
ton, and who opens, or hopes to open, a new career, 
if not in Calcutta, in some hill station among men, 
where there is not even one woman, except the in- 
visible Moslem, or Hindoo. Five or six very pretty 
and unmarried ladies came up with us in the Galle 
steamer, direct from England, with fresh English-look- 
ing cheeks, and bouncing ringlets. One of them was 
going out " engaged," and to be married the day or 
two after she landed in Burmah. But how her red 
cheeks will soon " wash out," pallid and pale, in this 
hot climate, and her ringlets bother her, as the per- 
spiration trickles down them ! The fact is, though, 



THINGS AND THOUGHTS IN CALCUTTA. 31 1 

Englishmen, unless they are rich merchants, cannot 
afford to marry here, heavenly as the luxury of a 
good wife must be in this hapless land. Their 
salaries, though big in our estimation, are not big 
enough to support a wife in India; and children, 
when born, cannot live here, after four or five years 
of age, being certain to die, or to dwindle down into 
cream-cheese, idiotic sort of anatomies, with little 
life, and less intelligence, in them. All, therefore, 
must be sent home to England in their childhood. 

Calcutta (or rather, Bengal and Burmah) is the 
mother of many other institutions than " the pun- 
kah," to fan and blow, for — despite what Cowper 
wrote — 

"I would not have a slave to fan me while I sleep," etc., 

every Englishman in India turns the Indian into a 
sort of slave — not chattel slave, not marketable, but 
none the less, the slave, who not only fans him while 
he sleeps, but does all other sorts of like kind 
things for him to keep him alive and cool. Among 
these other institutions is " the Chit," . which has 
been freely adopted from India into both Japan and 
China. In a country where it is so hot that you can- 
not run out to talk, or trade, or send a messenger to 
talk for you, because none of them well enough un- 
derstand the English language, writing is always 
resorted to — that is, " Chits " — and the Indian takes 
" the Chit " from white man to white man, awaiting 
the formal acceptance in a book he carries with him, 



312 -A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

or the reply, in another " Chit." Every thing, thus, 
is done in writing. Messages are often recorded in a 
common book, which everybody sees, as that book 
passes from one to another. This is well enough, 
ordinarily, and in business life, but when ladies enter 
upon the Chit business, they often make " a muss " 
of it, especially if the " Chits " be of affection or 
love, or, between man and woman. "Yours, lov- 
ingly," does not read well in public record, even, if 
ever so innocently, between lady and lady's man. 
]STor do rouge, or powder, or cologne, or false hair, if 
thus sent for, read as well as if not read at all. " I 
am dying to see you," writes one, and another reader 
wonders if the death has taken place, or if the visit 
was made to save the life. Chits in ladies' hands, it 
is easy to come to the conclusion, are a perilous In- 
dian institution, however necessary among men. A 
telegram here is called "a telechit." A wearied 
Chit writer says, "I have been chitting all day." 
Chits pour in upon you at all times, before break- 
fast, in bed, in the bath, at " tiffin," at dinner, in the 
theatre, at the ballroom. There is no end of Chits. 
Elsewhere in the world you may escape a bore, but 
in India there is no escaping a Chit. Nevertheless, 
the institution is indispensable in a climate like this, 
where, for some hours in the day, it is as much as a 
man's life is worth to face the sun, unless he has a 
two-storied pith hat or helmet on his head, and col- 
ored goggles to save his eyes. 

But, hot as it is, I am sorry to leave Calcutta — 



THINGS AND THOUGHTS IN CALCUTTA. 313 

for, socially, it seems to me a charming place. I 
came without a single letter of introduction ; but, 
through passengers on board the steamer, many doors 
have been open to me, and I have been as hospitably 
welcomed as if I were an Englishman in high posi- 
tion, and all the more welcome for being an Amer- 
ican. 



LETTEK XXXIY. 

TEE BUN ACROSS, INDIA. 

Things in India. — Eail from Calcutta to Bombay. — The Eaging Sun of India. — The 
Parsees of Bombay. — Fire "Worshippers.— Sunday Evening's "Work in Cal- 
cutta. — India Eailroad Cars. — How they are cooled, and how they are convert- 
ing the Pagans. — The Telegraphs of India. — Journalism in India. — Coal in 
India. — The Way Coolies work. — Indian Muslins and Cashmere Shawls. — The 
Plains of the Ganges. — The Pagan Temples of India. — Hindoos more intelligent 
than Mohammedans. — Allahabad. — Jubbalpore. — The Passage of the Ghauts.— 
Entrance into Bombay. 

Bombay, October 31, 1871. 

India " done " up ! One week in it ! — from Cal- | 
cutta to Bombay, 1,420 miles, in sixty-two hours ! 
Who can beat that % And I have seen so much, and j 
slept through so much, that quite a book might be 
filled thereon. The fact is, I am in a hurry to get v - 
home, have seen enough, and don't want to see any 
more. My eyes are weary, and all my senses sur- ; 
feited with the glories of Buddhism, Hindooism, ' 
Mohammedanism, Parseeism, and the -dominion of 
England over them all. No man ought ever to travel I 
for instruction, or pleasure, over three months at one 
time, for, after that, all the senses become intoxicated, | 
as it were, and then so blunted that the eyes decline to 
see, or the ears to hear. Best, long interludes of rest, \ 
become as indispensable to the traveller — rest, for all 
his senses — as day and night ; and hence, six continu- 



THE KUN ACROSS INDIA. 315 

ous months of sight-seeing have blunted curiosity, and 
all the faculties connected therewith. But, 1,420 miles 
" done " in India, in sixty-two hours, from the Bay 
of Bengal and the Ganges, to the Sea of Arabia — 
think of that ! And we slept by the way a good deal. 
"We wasted much time at many, many stations ; 
but our speed, while going, was thirty miles, and 
sometimes forty miles the hour, over first-class rail- 
roads, better built than any we have in America, cost- 
ing three dollars per mile to our one ; over frightfully 
flooding rivers ; through terrible mountain passes — 
but then again on long level plains, as smooth as our 
prairies, and with cultivation more beautiful, if possi- 
ble, than many parts on the Connecticut Eiver. 

And it is so hot here yet, when the raging sun 
roasts and burns us ; but, happily, cool and consoling, 
when that fiery monster goes down at night ! The 
sun, here, though creating and vivifying all the ele- 
ments of life, is Caucasian man's mortal enemy. The 
very look at it, in the daytime, runs a poor fellow 
half wild with fever. An ice-house is paradise, and 
ice is manna, or whatever you like best, be it roast 
beef and plum-pudding (the English manna), or mint 
julep, or sherry cobbler. Heaven bless Tudor again, 
the immortal Tudor, who is here, as well as every- 
where else, in the East. I hear from New York, Sep- 
tember 22, that a Bombay Parsee (a Mr. "Wadiah) was 
suffering from the climate, and compelled to wear three 
overcoats to keep him warm there ! I could lend him, 
to-day, my skin, the epidermis and cuticle, at least, if 



316 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

he were here, to keep Mm warm ; for, just now, there is 
no need of clothes, nay, no need of a skin, as even 
bones might melt in the noonday snn. The great 
Creator has made these Indians, as well as the Chi- 
nese, our superiors in one thing, at least, and that is, - 
in standing bareheaded, if necessary, the full blaze 
of the sun's noonday rays. Nevertheless, many L 
Englishmen do live and thrive here, in good health, , 
and with sound livers ; but they eat little, and drink [ 
less. Great feeders and drinkers here die early, or go 
home without a liver. ] 

The first thing that arrests an American traveller's jj 
attention here, is the hard Parsee names — (Parsees l 
do a large portion of the business of Bombay) — such j 
as Badabhoy Durshaw Gandy, or, Cursetjee Cesser- \ 
wanjee Cama, or, Hajee Zanel Abardin Sheerazee. \ 
One great man of Bombay was Sir Jamsetjee Jehee- j 
bhoy, and another, Cowasjee Jehanghir, who both did | 
much for charity, and thus left names to future fame. 
The Parsees are said to be fire worshippers, but this I 
is doubtful, in the sense outgiven — for who could j 
worship fire or sun, here, or any idol but ice ? They 
are European in look, build, and style, but tawny, j 
They have all the skill and quickness in business that I 
Europeans have, and the same faculty for making 
money. The Mohammedans, they say, drove them 
out of Persia some centuries gone by, and they came 
here, as the Puritans did to Plymouth, for religious 
peace ; but they agreed to do what the Puritans would 
never do, live quietly and like other people; and 



THE RUN ACROSS INDIA. 317 

j hence, they (the Parsees) eat no pork, and speak the 
! native language of the country. Hence, they have 
I had for centuries safety and peace, and are now most 
; loyal subjects of Queen Victoria. During our civil 
j war, on the rise of cotton, they made immense 
fortunes, and rolled in wealth ; but, when our war 
went down, their cotton went down, and many of 
them with it. I have been introduced to some of 
these Parsees — but think of remembering their names, 
or of even saying, " How do you do, Mr. Dhungee- 
bhoy Framgee Bhandarkar," or, any thing like it — 
more especially now, fresh, as I am, from the monosyl- 
labic names, the Changs, Engs, and "Wangs of China. 
But, come now, go back with me to Calcutta. I 
u lunched out " a Sunday, there, and drove out on the 
fashionable drive, which begins Sunday, at 5 p. m., 
and ends at church, at 6 or 6 J p. m., — in the English 
church in Fort "William, the fashionable Sunday even- 
ing church, where sixteen Hindoos pull the punkah 
for a thousand Christians, or more, during divine ser- 
vice, and thus play hide-and-go-seek with the clergy- 
man's eyes and gestures, or, fast-and-loose with the 
notes of the organists and boy chanters — then, went 
home to the hotel, the service being over — packed up 
— out to dine at 8 J p. m., and off in the cars for Cal- 
cutta, over the Hoogley, at 12 (midnight). I enter 
into all this minutim to show you how hard it was 
" to do Calcutta," in the brief space of time given me 
there. I have lost Delhi, and Agra, and Cawnpore, 
and Lucknow — and Agra is a real loss, because of the 



318 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

wonderful tomb, an Indian prince erected there in 
memory of his wife. And I have lost Mohammedan 
mosques and Hindoo temples innumerable ; but this 
world is big, even when you go round it by steam, 
and life is not long enough to see every thing. That 
unfortunate threat of the cyclone, delaying the steam- 
er nearly four days in the mouth of the Hoogley, lost 
me India, in detail, after all the sacrifice of time, and 
the risk of health run to see the detail, and compelled 
me to rush on to Bombay for the weekly steamer to 
Egypt, as if I had been shot off on a cannon-ball. 

The Calcutta-Bombay first-class through sleeping- 
car is a luxury — (fare, about $70, with baggage) — 
but not quite equal to our " silver palaces," though 
with some few advantages over them. The air is 
cooled a little, when the cars are in motion, by air 
forced through water from the bottom of the car. 
There is a punkah, which the motion of the car moves 
a little to fan you — a very uncertain sort of fanning, 
though. The windows of the car do not slide up and 
down, as ours do, but swing on hinges, every alternate 
window, from the right to the left, and vice versa; 
and you arrange them, on their hinges, to the reverse 
motion of the car, so as to keep out the dust, and 
then enjoy the air. The windows are of colored glass, 
to shut out the terrible glare of the sun. The water 
to wash with is forced up from below by a force pump, 
as you need it. Over the windows, one and all, is a 
wooden projecting shade to keep off the sun, and to 
forbid the windows from opening too far. These are 



THE RUN ACROSS INDIA. 319 

advantages over our cars; but there are no sheets 
provided for beds, no pillow-cases or pillows, no 
towels, no soap, no ice, no attendance inside. Out- 
side, at stopping places, are coolies by the score, and 
policemen ; and the coolies, from skins sluog over 
their backs, filled with water, supply it to you, for 
drink or washing, if you need it, or, pull the punkah 
fan to cool you, if you desire it. There is a great 
retinue about every station — a retinue in uniform — 
and the stations are often very costly, as at Jubbal- 
pore and Allahabad. 

The railroads of India are doing more, it seems to 
me, for the conversion of Hindoos, if not Moham- 
medans, than all the missionaries; and if the Eng- 
lish government here would give a little bit of prefer- 
ence to the Holy Bible over the Shastras, and Yedas, 
and the Korans (only a little bit), I should have some 
hope that the railroads would do what the mission- 
aries have, for now two centuries, not done — that is, 
turn the people from- the error of their ways. The 
railroad is breaking down slowly the Hindoo castes. 
The proud, and lofty, and blue-blooded Brahmin must 
now go into the same car with the poor, despised 
Pariah, or not go at all. The hard-hearted English 
conductor pushes in, or tumbles in, Pariah on top of 
Brahmin, and Mohammedans among them too. Each 
wraps up his garments around him, and preserves 
himself, as much as possible, from the horrible con- 
tamination ; but, when once holy Brahmin is in the 
car with polluted Pariah, go he must, or jump out 



320 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN. 

and die. The railroad, now, has become here the 
great vein of life, the heart, as it were, of the geo- 
graphical anatom y of the country ; and hence, this 
mixed circulation of all these various religious sects 
and bloods in it, is amalgamating, slowly, despite 
religion, caste, and creed. And this is happening in 
a land, too, where, if even the shadow of a Christian, 
or a Mohammedan, or Pariah, should pass over the 
food of a Brahmin, he would not eat it, or over his 
body, he would feel himself polluted. Railroads are 
great levellers everywhere ; but railroads in India 
are levelling heathenism, and may, by-and-by, bring 
it up to Christianity. "What conquers caste here, 
equalizes. "What equalizes heathenism here, strips it 
of its pride, selfishness, exclusiveness, etc., and thus 
prepares it for something better than itself. By the 
way, we live well and fare well on the rails of India. 
The conductor asks us miles ahead, " if we breakfast, 
or dine," here or there, and the telegraph is used to 
have the meal all ready for us, the prices being about 
the same as in the United States. There are miles 
and miles of telegraph, now, all over India, from the 
seas to the mountains, on to every inland military 
station, and the rates are very cheap. I can thus reach 
New York, from Delhi or the Punjaub, in less than a 
day ; and from Bombay there are three distinct lines 
to Europe. I read scraps of New York and U. S. news 
every day, in the Bombay journals, which are about 
as good as ours in New York. Indeed, there are 
British journals, and journals in the native tongue, 



TEE RUN ACROSS INDIA. 321 

all over India. The press is as free, as keen, as sharp, 
as critical here, over public men, and on public meas- 
ures, as in London or Eew York. The only real re- 
straint here, on the absolute government, is this free 
press — save and except those deep-rooted and wide- 
spread free foundations of English law, viz., the 
Habeas Corpus and Magna Charta. 

What I saw at night, in my flight across the In- 
dias, is a " bull " you will not expect me to make, but 
I have no doubt that, as I slept, I slept by many holy, 
as well as, business places — some British and Dutch 
battlefields, and many of the historical sacred spots 
of Warren Hastings and Lord Clive ; but, as I have 
written before, one can't see every thing, and one 
must sleep — what a pity ! — to live. The Portuguese 
Catholic priests were all about this country as long 
ago as A. D. 1540. When, in 1632, the great Mogul 
came to Hugly — a place I passed in the night — there 
were 2,000 souls crowded for safety on board one 
Portuguese ship, the captain of which blew it up, 
with all on board, rather than fall into the hands of 
the Mohammedans. We passed Burdwan, too, the 
rajah of which pays two millions of dollars rental, 
for his estates, to the British government. We waked 
up at daybreak, off the flat-land, and amid hills, if 
not mountains, in the coal regions — for the supplies 
of coal are as abundant here as in Pennsylvania 
(U. S.), and so cheap, that in Calcutta it is sold for 
about five dollars a ton. Two annas per day (six 

cents) is the price of labor in the coal mines, and on 
15 



322 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

the railroads, in this part of India — the coolie find- 
ing himself, in clothes (little or none), and in food, 
rice and vegetables. But there is little or no work 
in him, unless driven. Every thing is carried in 
baskets — on the head — coal, dirt, etc. The wheel- 
barrow was tried in railroad building, and the 
scoop ; but the native did not take to these novelties, 
and would try to carry the wheelbarrow on his head, 
and no artificial scoop or dredging power was so 
cheap as the power of perpendicular bone and muscle. 
Man was cheaper than steam, or cheaper than ma- 
chine. There is no patent right so cheap in India as 
the God-made machine, called man. Nevertheless, 
there is no slavery here. It is a free country. Every 
man owns his own bones and brains. But, in con- 
tradiction to all this, some of you will remember — 
nay, not longer than 1830 — when even muslins for 
our shirts came from India, while now, the far cost- 
lier labor, but powerful loom machinery of England, 
has nearly destroyed the manufacture here, and sub- 
stituted in its stead immense importations of all sorts 
of drygoods therefor. The cashmere and India 
shawls, and some few objects of art manufactured 
now, alone survive the competition of dearer labor 
and cheaper machinery in England and America. 
Reconcile this logic, so contradictory. I can't stop 
to do it now. 

Then, we came down from the hills into the level, 
beautiful, alluvial, broad-spread plains of the Ganges, 
where for miles and miles there is little to see but 



THE RUN ACROSS INDIA. 323 

highly-cultivated patches of the rich soil, and myriads 
of bullocks, and tropical vegetation of all kinds fas- 
cinating to the eye. The land seems full of people, 
and capable of supporting any number of them. But 
the eye soon wearies with vegetable wealth and flow- 
ers everlasting. One covets a mountain, or a water- 
fall, and soon feels, in this hot climate, that a poor 
life on the hills is better than a rich life on the ever- 
lasting plains. The people on these plains have no 
need of clothes, no real need of work, for it is ever 
hot enough to run naked, and the plantain and other 
tropical food would feed them, even if the coun try- 
were a jungle. Nevertheless, the cultivation of the 
country shows great industry. The farmers, just 
now, are putting in some new crop, and the plough — 
the earth-scraper, I had better call it— with the bul- 
locks pulling it, covers, more or less, all parts of the 
now living country. The Ganges, which but the 
other day covered every thing with its waters, has 
now gone to rest, and left behind its fat treasures of 
deposits to enrich the land. . . . 

But up, and on, or I shall never get to Bombay ! 
"What a pity I could not stop at that holy Hindoo 
city of Benares, with her one thousand temples 
" wholly given to idolatry." A half a million of gods 
are said to be worshipped here ! Thousands of mon- 
keys there are, in, and about one temple — fine, fat, 
well-bred monkeys, from the venerable patriarch to 
the babe in its mother's arms — all holy, holy, holy, 
and not to be desecrated by unholy Christian hands ! 



324 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

The Hindoo venerates the ape, because of some ser- 
vices, somewhere, some ' smart monkey did the Hin- 
doos in their wars with the Mohammedans, before 
their surrender to the Great Mogul. In the shades 
of the second evening we passed Mirzapoor, where, 
once was the great temple of the Thugs of India, at 
which they worshipped, before they went to waylay, 
rob, and murder the traveller. The Thugs are ex- 
tirpated, now, everywhere, and travelling is safer in 
India than in any other Eastern country. It was 
midnight when we reached Allahabad (the city of 
Allah, it means), where join the Jumna and the Gan- 
ges, and another great river, the Hindoos say, that 
flows direct from heaven, which, however, is allowed 
to be invisible to mortal eye. Certain, there is no 
railroad bridge over it. When a Hindoo pilgrim ar- 
rives at Allahabad, he sits down at the bank of the 
river, and has his head and body shaved, so that each 
hair may fall into the water, the sacred writers prom- 
ising him one million of years' residence in heaven 
for every hair thus deposited ! I did not drop a hair, 
but thought of it, in the moonlight, though many a 
Christian does, as he passes, so I am told, in order to 
be on the sure side. 

These Hindoos, nevertheless, are not such fools as 
these superstitions would seem to indicate them to be. 
The English, here, pronounce them to be far the su- 
periors of the Mohammedans, who do believe in God, 
though in Mohammed as his prophet. They have more 
intelligence than the Mohammedans ; often educate 



THE RUN ACROSS INDIA. 325 

themselves to a high standard of learning ; often hold 
offices under the British, and oftener, are employed as 
bright men in practical business life. It is noted in 
history that when the Mohammedans, the better sol- 
diers in their day, conquered the Hindoos, the Mo- 
hammedan chiefs had ever to employ the Hindoos, 
in large numbers, successfully to govern the country. 
The Mohammedans were only soldiers, while the 
Hindoos were the better civilians.* They growl and 
grumble, now, under British rule, as 'the British 
prefer the Hindoos in official employ ; and, just at 
this moment, a fanatical sect among them, the Waha- 
bees, are suspected of having employed the fanatic 
who recently assassinated the Chief Justice at Cal- 
cutta. 

From Allahabad to Jubbalpore is the line of rail 
— 228 miles — recently opened, connecting Calcutta 
and Bombay, without the intervention of bullock 
carts, or any other like unearthly conveyance. Dark- 
ness came over us on the Ganges plain's ; but day- 
light opens on us in a rude, rough country, among 
hills and mountains, with a sharp, biting air, where 
two overcoats were not uncomfortable to sleep under. 
We have been going through, we are told, a land of 
tigers, leopards, bears, sambuk, spotted deer, ante- 
lopes, etc., etc. None of them jumped into the cars, 
or disturbed our slumbers. Hills are on each side of 
us, and now, we are winding at their base, and then, 
through many a sharp curve and steep incline, we 
climb and wind our way through scenery nearly 



326 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

as picturesque as seen on the Pacific road in Utah. 
Bold headlands often strut out like mighty bastions, 
the red strata laid bare at the top, and looking like a 
bluff point crowned by a fortress. 

Jubbalpore, the end of the Great East India Rail- 
way, and the beginning of the Great Peninsular and 
Oriental rail, we reached in season for quite a sumptu- 
ous breakfast. A thousand feet up in the air, it is not 
hot at early morning. It is a pretty-looking place, full 
of English, with an English church. We enter here 
the valley of the Nerbudda, wild, woody, and un- 
cultivated. Then we go on, miles and miles, crossing 
three rivers on costly bridges, before we are done 
with the tributaries of the !Nerbudda. We pass Bur- 
hampur, where they manufacture muslins, flowered 
silks, and brocades. Then, on, and on, through parts 
of Scindia — not far from spacious Buddhist cavern 
temples, hewn in the solid rock of amygdaloid, and 
thus indestructible by Mohammedan iconoclasts. 
The great Aurungzebe figured here, and about here. 
Then we come to the Western Ghauts — not our 
Spanish- American canons, but passes, over hills, or 
mountains. Shady forests, rippling streams, lofty 
hills, and smiling dells, all make the country pretty. 
The passage of the Ghauts is one of the magnificent 
works of modern engineering. The rail line passes 
through 13 tunnels, over 6 viaducts, one, 250 yards 
long and 288 feet high, solid work of rock and iron. 
There are 15 bridges and 62 culverts in three Ghaut 
passes here. The road winds and curves around 



THE RUN ACROSS INDIA. 327 

precipices like the worm of a screw. We were an 
hour going 10 miles ; but, when we began to descend 
down the sea face toward the Indian Ocean, we flew 
at the rate of 40 or 50 miles the hour, through wooded 
gorges, bj streams, cascades, forests of palms, tall 
teak trees, groves, and flowers, till we reached the 
swamp level of the sea, on which we go into Bombay, 
and again snuff the salt ocean air. 

Enter Byculla, the chief station, near most of the 
hotels — but I go farther on, into the heart of the city, 
where, on the old Fort ground, is the Esplanade 
Hotel — a hotel built on purpose for a hotel, not 
sprung from patched-up houses, as are most hotels 
— a hotel of iron sent out from England, five or six 
of the loftiest stories high, over every room in which 
runs a current of air, with this disadvantage, that 
what you say or do in one room, is certain to be 
known in its neighbor room. The depot scenes of 
travellers' exit are nearly alike the whole world over 
(New York city excepted). There, surround you, 
cry for you, under discipline, though, the drivers of 
bullock carts (two bullocks drawing at times rather 
a pretty vehicle on springs), shigrams (a sort of rock- 
away, closely shutting up, to keep off the sun), and 
buggies ; and there are palanquins (a sort of shut-up 
bed to stretch out on), with four hamals, or six (cool- 
ies), to carry you on- their shoulders, if you wish. 
Never was a hotel, with baths, etc., more welcome. 
All the waters of the Indian Ocean can scarcely wash 
one off after such a flight, as mine, overland ; but, I 



328 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

am up, " redeemed, regenerated, disenthralled," from 
dirt, high up in the air, in a balconied room, over- 
looking the city, its suburbs and its seas, and never 
in better health, though in India, and hot as it is 
in India. 



LETTEE XXXY. 

SIGHTS IN AND ABOUT BOMBAY. 

Bombay. — "What it is as a City. — Calcutta the Court ; Bombay the Mart. — New In- 
fluences of the Suez Canal. — The Treasures of India here. — Cashmere Shawls. — 
The Bombay Fashionables on a Drive. — The Parsees. — The way they don't bury 
their Dead. — India Gods. — Where manufactured. — The Temples of India. — The 
Wonderful " Elephanta,"— Dining Out in the East. — The Eoute to Persia and 
Aden. — The Census and Exports of Bombay.— Extent of Eailroads in India. — 
Sound Banks and a good Currency. 

Bombay, November 4, 1871. 

Bombay is a very respectable city, witli over 
800,000 inhabitants. Where they are put, though, 
I cannot see ; but it is a stretched-out city, with long 
arms, and very, long legs, and " considerable of a 
body." It is as flat as a prairie, excepting Malabar 
Hill, or a promontory where the Quality live and 
drive, and two other little places of no great note, 
unless the Government House makes the Parell Hill a 
notability, and, of course, out here it does. A Gov- 
ernor in the East is, everywhere, the great " swell." 
Isn't he the representative of the Queen's majesty % 
Of course he is ; and hence, Sir Edward Fitzgerald, 
the Governor of the great Bombay Presidency, 
makes Parell Hill a great notability — for he is the 
light set on that hill. Bombay has a fresh, lively, 
clean look, that reminds one of some of our rich 
mushroom Western cities. The merchant princes do 



330 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

not generally do business under their household es- 
tablishments, as, often, elsewhere in the East, but live 
out in villas, amid the cooling breezes of Malabar. 
Calcutta is courtly; Bombay is mercantile. There 
is great rivalry between the two cities. One is the 
Court, the tQn, as well as the town, while the other 
is gathering up, and taking away, the trade and com- 
merce of Calcutta, because here is the nearest outlet, 
by the rail, of India to England, and for all the ships 
on the seas. The French canal through the Isthmus 
of Suez, too, that the British merchants so long bit- 
terly opposed, in the fear that the French would thus 
monopolize the commerce of India, is becoming the 
greatest boon to Bombay; for here now, without 
bulk breaking, or sailing around the Cape, come 
steamers from all parts of England, and from Trieste 
and Brindisi, and from Genoa, Naples, Marseilles, 
and the whole Mediterranean. Bombay is thus 
brought into close contiguity with all Europe, while 
Calcutta is all the way around the Island of Ceylon, 
and up the Bay of Bengal. Bombay says, too, she 
is " healthier than Calcutta." Calcuttians deny that. 
" Our pure rivers, now, from the rectified Ganges, 
and our sewers," they say, " make Calcutta one of 
the healthiest cities in the world." (The world, how- 
ever, will not believe that for many years to come ; 
for the most that is known of Calcutta in the world 
is, "the Black Hole" of history, there.) Bombay 
says, "Look at our magnificent harbor, where whole 
navies can ride in safety ; the entrance to, and the 



SIGHTS IN AND ABOUT BOMBAY. 331 

exit from, winch is easy, while the Hoogley River, 
the entrance to Calcutta, is dangerous and costly in 
pilotage, and ever giving trouble to all the ships that 
go in there." Calcutta is silent on that theme. The 
Suez Canal navigation is concentrating here, directly, 
the steamships of Austria — Russia (from Odessa), and 
Italy, as well as France — nay, perhaps more and 
more, the direct trade from London and Liverpool 
(and scattering it all over Europe) ; but, nevertheless, 
all are to be to the profit of Bombay. 

Bombay is the mart of India manufactures, from 
the far up-country of the Indus down to Madras ; and 
hence, one has to shop here, of course — but shopping 
is easier in India than in JSTew York, for the things 
come to you, not you to the shops. On the front of 
our hotel veranda, were spread out the treasures of 
India — boxes of sandal-wood, ivory, shell, teak, 
carved and lacquered — work in wool, in muslin, in 
silver and gold, embroideries, etc. ; but the Indian is 
no match, now, as a manufacturer, with the Chinese 
or Japanese, while the European has stolen almost 
all his arts from him — all, perhaps, except the Cash- 
mere and Indian shawls. The Indian embroiders 
yet cheaply, on European fabrics, more cheaply than 
the European can, and, hence, commands a market 
for some of his fabrics. The wealth of shawls here, 
however, rather startles the European or American, 
even one accustomed to the high prices of jNew York 
or Paris. There was one pair of shawls noted, for 
which the Indian dealer wanted 5,000 rupees, each 



332 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

— that is, $2,500. They were very long, very, very 
fine, but would not quite go through a finger-ring, as, 
some say, some of the very finest will. Prices of the 
good cashmere vary from $150 to $500 and $1,000 ; 
but few, or none, of the latter are sold, except to 
royalty. Months and months of labor are spent upon 
some of these cashmeres, more than upon the laces 
of Belgium ; and the work upon them is immense. 
The u wool " of which they are made is the under 
wool, or hair, of the goat, as of the under hair of the 
seal, and of the very finest quality. Moore, the poet, 
has given the world his fancy views of the vale of 
Cashmere ; but his fancy is very near the fact in his 
poetic description of that beautiful region, which is 
not yet British, though under the influence and sway 
of Britons. 

There are many things to see in Bombay, but all 
cannot now be seen, lively as I have been. I went 
to the evening drive on Malabar Hill, but, in dash 
and crash here, there is no comparison with the Cal- 
cutta fashionable drive. The red and yellow of the 
turbans, and of the liveries, arrest one's attention. 
Sometimes it would seem as if all the scarlet in the 
country was afloat in Bombay. There are fellows, 
with golden turbans, swelling out a foot, almost, on 
either side the head — but bare-legged, and bare- 
footed, with all that. Bare legs is a part of the fash- 
ionable livery of India. We see on this drive rich 
Parsees, out with their equipages; and some rich 
Hindoos, too. There is a Parsee theatre here, in 



SIGHTS IN AND ABOUT BOMBAY. 333 

Bombay, but it is too hot to shut one's-self up in hot 
walls, these hot nights. The Hindoos have not yet 
reached theatrical refinements; but their festivals, 
and show festivals, too, are innumerable. There is a 
dreadful sight, at times, here in Bombay, even to an 
old traveller like myself, who has reached the nil 
admirari of Horace almost to perfection — and that 
is, a Parsee funeral — a Parsee — interment ? !No ! — a 
burial % No ! — a Hindoo incremation, burning up 
of the body % JSTo ! But — I do not know what to 
call it, and hence, must describe it. Parsees die, of 
course, and are never buried, like Christians, or Mo- 
hammedans, or burnt like the Hindoos, but taken to a 
high tower, on Malabar Hill, soon after death, and 
there, naked, on an open grate, left to be eaten up 
by the vultures ; and their bones, when the flesh is 
gone, drop through the grate into a vault below! 
The vultures have learned to snuff a Parsee funeral 
in the distance, and hover over it, and croak about 
it ; and no sooner is the corpse left on the grating, 
than they enter upon the scramble for the flesh that 
is on it! They tell me — I don't vouch for this, 
though — that at times, in the fashionable quarters 
of Malabar Hill, on a veranda, is dropped a stray 
finger, or toe, that the vulture has found rather in- 
digestible. The Bombayans don't seem to think 
much of all this. It strikes me as the strangest, 
most startling of things I have yet to record in 
all my ramblings. 

Long ago have I given up seeing heathen temples. 



334: A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

One wearies, after a while, in Europe, even, of cathe- 
drals, to say nothing of churches ; but in the East I 
have seen here so many gods (they make them, by 
the way, in Manchester, now, for export to India), 
that I had resolved never again to enter Buddhist or 
Hindoo temple. But, on an island about six miles 
from Bombay, is one which has so great a name — 
that is, is so famous — that I went with a pleasant 
party in a sail-boat, to have a luncheon in it, and a 
good time generally. The temple is called the Cave 
Temple of Elephanta. The Hindoos picked out a 
romantic island for their great temple, and in a solid 
rock, under two hills, cut out a temple* — with what 
instruments, who knows? — and how long ago, who 
can tell ? The work is a wonder, almost as much of a 
wonder as the Pyramids, and more than the Sphynx. 
"We go up to it from the water about half a mile on 
stone steps, a stone-ascending pavement, the avenue 
walled with stone on both sides. Two ponderous 
pillars and two pilasters, forming three openings 
under a steep rock, overhung by brushwood, first 
meet one's eyes. The great temple is one hundred 
and thirty-three feet broad, one hundred and thirty 
and a half feet long, and twenty feet high, the roof 
being supported by ranges of massive pillars, with 
ornamental capitals of varied designs, all hewn out 
of the solid rock. Opposite the entrance is a gigan- 
tic bust with three heads, supposed to represent the 
Hindoo Trinity. There are two smaller temples, one 
on each side of the principal one. There are now no 



SIGHTS IN AND ABOUT BOMBAY. 335 

priests in this temple, no worship. It is given np 
to Bombay jpic-nic parties, and visitors eat, drink, 
and make merry in it. "We planted onr table in the 
opening, with a lake-like view of the water before ns, 
that reminded me of West Point ; and the feast the 
coolies brought down to ns from the city, we enjoyed 
with a zest, in the cool air of the temple cave, with an 
appetite inspired by the little boat voyage. If any 
reader of mine should ever go there, let him remem- 
ber he must mount on coolies' backs, to be carried to 
and from his boat, so shallow are the waters on the 
shore. I would like to tell you of the purposes of 
two of the altars in this temple, but I can only tell 
verbally, never on paper. 

Were you ever invited out to dinner, accepting 
the invitation, and not knowing where to go, and not 
knowing enough of Hindostanee to ask anybody? 
Well, that was my condition the day of the pic-nic 
— dinner, 8-J- p. m., place three miles off— -and how 
was I to get there ? Pantomime did the job. Fin- 
gers are about as good to talk with as tongues, if you 
have only one word to work on, and that, I had — ex- 
cellent Hindostanee. The Tower of Babel — plague 
on it — has been the cause of more trouble than any 
thing in this world, except Mother Eve's defalcation. 
I pantomimed into my dinner party at 9 p. m. — a 
hungry, half-angry, but very polite company await- 
ing. Europeans live here, as in China and Japan, 
like princes. If they don't soon check their extrava- 
gance, the cheaper-living Germans, and the cheaper- 



336 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

yet Parsees and Chinese, will root them out of the 
trade of the country. To go to a dinner-party, in 
woollens — in a fashionable bob-tailed woollen coat, 
with a well-lined vest and pantaloons, made for the 
winter in New York, the thermometer there often in 
the neighborhood of zero — is not exactly comfortable 
in Bombay, where the thermometer wanders in the 
nineties ; but such is the dictum of Fashion in Cal- 
cutta and Bombay; — and in woollen, and white 
choker, you have to stand it, if you will dine out 
with other people. They do say, but I did not see 
it, that in pity the master of the feast sometimes 
offers you a linen jacket in exchange for your woollen 
coat, which said jacket, by previous arrangement, 
you bring from home with you ; but this was not our 
case, as we ate, drank, and made merry only in the 
woollens — calmed, however, if not cooled, by the 
blessed punkah. 

But I am off this evening to Aden, Suez, Alexan- 
dria, Brindisi — twenty-one days, though, yet from 
London, in one continuous, everlasting steamer mo- 
tion. I donH want to go home, and I do want to go 
home ; and in this verbal, there is no mental, contradic- 
tion. The more a traveller goes, the more he pants to 
go. My mouth is watering for a nice little run on the 
Persian Gulf, in a steamer, from Bombay to Bussora, 
and thence, by steamer, on to Bagdad, in Persia, 
where close by, I could sec what is left of Babylon 
and Nineveh, and go then up the Euphrates, to Alep- 
po and Alexandretta, on the Mediterranean, where 



SIGHTS IN AND ABOUT BOMBAY. 337 

the French steamers touch. If I were a free man, I 
would go home that way. 

DISTANCES. MILES. 

Bombay to Bussora (by steam) 1,915 

Bussora to Bagdad (by steam) 500 

Bagdad to Alexandretta 900 

— on which latter route there is steam on the Eu- 
phrates to Mescany, which is fifteen hours' ride from 
Aleppo, and Aleppo is eighty-four miles from Alex- 
andretta. 

Before I leave Bombay, however, let me add on 
more statistics. 

The census of Bombay, in 1864, showed the fol- 
lowing population : 

Hindoos 585,968 

Mohammedans 145,800 

Parsees 49,201 

Europeans 8,415 

Jews 2,872 

All other races 24,226 

Exports the last year from Bombay $126,454,000 

Imports 81,729,000 

These exports are increasing, in consequence of 
Bombay's being made the railroad, as well as steam- 
boat centre. Cotton is the chief article, and our 
prices current of that article in America are daily 
telegraphed here. There are thirteen lines of steam- 
ers connected with this port — four from Europe, the 
great P. & O. (English), once a week ; the Austrian 
Lloyds, from Trieste ; the Italian, from Yenice ; and 
the Messagerie, from Marseilles — the three last run- 



338 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

ning through the Suez Canal, where the P. & O. 
(English) will soon have to go, or else lose most of the 
freight and passenger trade. 

There have been four hundred million dollars ex- 
pended upon the India railroads, now over five thou- 
sand miles in extent, and increasing. They reach 
the Indus now, and are soon going up to Cashmere 
and Caubul. 

The currency of India is excellent. The banks 
are now in high credit, and their notes circulate all 
over the land at par, being receivable for Govern- 
ment dues. The rupee (fifty cents) is the silver coin. 
There is a gold coin, but it is hoarded as soon as 
issued. 

Doubtless, you will smile when you read these 
letters from India, naturally enough wondering how, 
in a single week in India, I could pick up so much 
material, all the while being, as I have been, on the 
wing. When a traveller reads every thing he can lay 
his hands on in a country, and is surrounded by in- 
telligent men who can answer all his questions, he 
learns a great deal in a very little while. I have 
been thinking, since I came here, that one might stay 
at home, and thus travel, with photographic views 
only of the countries he would visit ; but the diffi- 
culty there is the geography. One can get the geog- 
raphy of a country in his head only by running into 
it, or over it. This I have done in India ; and hence, 
have gathered up so much in so little time. The 
world is too big, and life is too short, to go and stay 



SIGHTS IN AND ABOUT BOMBAY. 339 

everywhere. Skim, fly, read, study, hear, question, 
keep eyes and ears all wide open, and, with the geog- 
raphy of a country well in your head, you can un- 
derstand its commerce, and trade, and life, pretty 
well afterward. 



LETTEE XXXYI. 

ON TEE ARABIAN AND BED SEAS. 

Lascars, Africans, Chinese, Portuguese, and Englishmen, managing a Steamer. — 
The Infernal Sun of India. — The Eeservoir of Surplus Englishmen. — How India 
exhausts European Life. — The British Soldier's Luxurious Life in Peace. — The 
Native Troops of India. — The Grip of England upon India. — Effect of Christian- 
ity upon Hindoos and Mohammedans.— The Hindoo Pantheon and 333,000,000 
Gods. — The Brahmin Castes. — Bankers "below Barbers. — Arabs and their Ocean 
Craft. — Eailroad from London to Bombay.— Time, Five Days. — England encore, 
toujours, forever and ever. — The Eed-Hot Eed Sea. — This "Unfinished Part of 
the Earth. — Aden the Fag End of Creation. — The Divers of Aden. — Strings 
of Camels Led by their Noses.— The Proper Time to Travel in the East. — Fares 
and Distances. 

On the Arabian Sea, November 7, 1871. 

I am on board the steamer Sumatra, bound to 

Aden (1,664 miles from Bombay), and to Su£z (1,308 

from Aden, distance in all, 2,972 miles). I have two 

weeks (the time of the voyage) to read, write, and 

think in. The steamer is one of the first-class of the 

P. & O. line, and nearly all the passengers we have, 

about thirty, are used-up Englishmen, on their way 

home to recruit, or, English women, faded in India, 

and white and pale, and going home to get red and 

rosy again, with some dozen children, the palest, 

sickliest, puniest little doll babies, that Indian nurses, I 

men nurses as well as women nurses, ever had to care 

for. There are about one hundred and thirty in all 

of the crew ; Lascars for sailors (it takes three of 

them, at least, to do one Englishman's work), negroes, 



ON THE ARABIAN AND RED SEAS. 341 

j from the coast of Africa as firemen, red-hot black 
; fellows, who, born under Africa's fiery sun, now 
j stand England's red-hot coal, even down in the third 
,; story of a ship, where no air ever gets, except through 
j the windsail ; Portuguese (mixed breeds) for servants 
j in the cabin; Chinamen for carpenters and other 
j like smart work ; and a few Europeans, for brains, 
j as captain, quartermaster, engineers, clerks, doctor, 
| etc., etc. Take us all in all, we are a very motley 
, set ; and considering that the most of us have been 
; fried out during the summer, in India, or Ceylon, or 
China, the wonder is, that there is stamina enough in 
any of us to eat and to drink ; but there is, for all, 
save the pale, washed-out ladies, do duty regularly 
at table .three times per day, if not four, or more. 
The sea is as smooth as a lake — this is not the raging 
monsoon season — and we make our 230, 240, 250, or 
260 miles per day, without trouble, but able to do 
more, if consistent with the time regulations of the 
company, that has so to manage as to bring in a 
China steamer at the same time with a Bombay, and 
Australian steamer, too, and to meet those coming 
from Southampton (Eng.), and Brindisi (Italy), to 
Alexandria. But, though we eat and drink freely, 
there is scarcely life enough left in the passengers to 
talk. All are as solemn as owls. The starch is out 
of most of us. There is no singing, dancing, and 
making merry, as among the Galle-Calcutta passen- 
gers, fresh from England — while now, the chatter is 
of the infernal sun of India, the fevers, the jungles, 



342 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

the bungalows (houses), only kept cool by the pun- 
kahs, and with grass doors, ever kept wet by a con- 
stant throw of water on them from the coolies. What 
a life Englishmen thus lead in India, for gold, or 
glory, or what is more likely, from inability to live 
at home, and, therefore, under the necessity of earn- 
ing a livelihood abroad ! 

India now, I see, is what our great "West is — the 
reservoir of the surplus life of the old country. What 
England would do, but for this reservoir, into which 
to empty its gentry, I cannot well see. Perhaps 
Englishmen revolutionize, as the French do, for the 
want of some such reservoir to empty their surplus 
life into. India is England's great office placer^ 
where, mine the educated youth of England-, who can 
find nothing to do at home (save work, and that is 
not fashionable there) ; or, where are banished officers 
of the army (legion in number), in command of the 
native troops of India. India rescues England from I 
the proud and educated, the idle, but not hard-work- ! 
ing, Englishmen. Much of the best blood of Eng- | 
land is in India, no more idle, though, than it is at ! 
home ; for, when it finds no vent in wars, it hunts 
tigers, or leopards, or panthers, or deer, or any thing, 
even elephants, that the jungles hide. It is no sine- 
cure, certainly, to command in a country where you 
have to use punkahs and grass-covered doors, ever wet I 
with water, to be able to live at all. Nevertheless, 
life is so judiciously economized in India by the 
government, that the European lives, and recovers, 



ON THE ARABIAN AND RED SEAS. 343 

often, even from a lost liver. When sickness, or 
threatened sickness, assails him, he is sent home. 
Even when well, he is allowed to go to England every 
live or six years, and to stay a year to recruit in. 
The laws of health have been so well studied, that 
when illness threatens in the plains, the highlands are 
resorted to, and every thing that can be done in dress, 
barracks, and provisions, for the British soldier, to 
save his life, is here done. In person, all he has to 
do is to drill in early morning, or at sunset in the 
evening. Coolies wait upon him. All his cooking 
is done by others, and baths are provided for him. 
The sanitary regulations are now the best human in- 
genuity can devise to save life, and they are generally 
successful. 

All British officers acknowledge that England has 
a very frail hold on India, and that it could not hold 
it a day without an army over 200,000 strong. Never- 
theless, its grip is greater and closer now than ever 
before. To say nothing of the reaction in favor of 
British power since it quelled the terrible mutiny, its 
railroad and telegraph systems are worth to it 100,- 
000 soldiers, or more. There is no confidence be- 
tween Englishmen, and Hindoos, and Mohammedans. 
There is no bond of unity in any way, except that of 
force. The races are in all respects repugnant, the 
one to the other. To increase its security, the Gov- 
ernment makes up the native regiments about one- 
half from Hindoos, and the other Mohammedans ; 
and it relies more upon the Sikh soldier for protection 



344 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

than upon any other — the Sikh from the up-country, 
who has great contempt for the men of the plains — 
the Sikh, who, in the last mutiny, stood faithful, when 
every thing else was dropping away. Education is 
doing something to soften the mistrust of race ; but 
Christian missions, as yet, seem to be doing little or 
nothing. Education, however, at first, only makes 
Deists of Hindoos and Mohammedans. It takes away 
from them all respect for their own customs, while it 
cannot sever them from the associations of their 
brethren and kindred. They lose their respect for 
the Koran and the Yedas, and yet they have no more 
respect for the Bible. But, doubtless, this is a process 
through which the heathen mind has to go, before it 
can comprehend the sublime truths of Christianity. 
According to the best authorities, the Hindoo Pan- 
theon is peopled by precisely 333,000,000 gods — and 
such a lot of divinities, of course, are not to be got rid 
of in a hurry ! Then, the castes are not to be broken 
down without tremendous social struggles. The 
Brahmins, even, count 2,000 separate, distinct families 
of their order alone ! Then, the abominable castes 
in some parts of India — that is, the outcasts — out- 
number these Brahmins in the proportion of three to 
one, exclusive of the other impure and very low 
tribes ! Bankers in Bengal rank below barbers ! 
But I shall not write a book on castes. Eor shall I 
dwell more upon the Indian, as contrasted with the 
European — for what can I know in my flight over, 
and through the land ? All I can give is impressions ; 



ON THE ARABIAN AND RED SEAS. 34.5 

and one of the most vivid of my impressions is, that 
the Indian is far inferior to the Chinese or the Japan- 
ese, in almost every quality that goes to make up the 
man. 

This Arabian Sea I am coasting along has all 
sorts of a history, from the days when Alexander's 
fleet was off the Persian Gulf, to the victorious eras 
of the Arabs, who led the way to the coast of Malabar. 
But the Arab fleets do not amount to much now. 
They do bring down coffee from Mocha, and little 
things from Muscat; but their ocean craft cannot 
have improved much for a thousand years. Despite 
the English gunboats, they keep up the slave trade 
from Zanguebar, and run the gauntlet to Turkish 
ports, here and there, in order to find a market for 
the chattel. It is not creditable to the spirit and spunk 
of the African — is it ? — that even the Indian and the 
Arab can kidnap and sell him % "but let us not under- 
value this Arab, as once, if not now, he was a mighty 
man, not only of the East, but of parts of the West ; 
for he gave us our algebra, our numerals, and other 
arts and sciences too numerous to number here. 
Just now, the Turk has got him under foot ; but he 
is fighting in Arabia this very day, as I go by, to re- 
cover his lost prestige, and Turkish fleets and Turkish 
armies float all about here, in-order to keep the Arab 
down. 

Shall we always have to go to Aden, and roast in 
the Eed Sea, in-order to get to, or from Europe? 
No ! A railroad^ to run from London to Bombay in 
16 



346 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN. 

five days, is earnestly talked of even now, to do away 
with the twenty-one days by sea; and some snch 
rail, within twenty years, will be laid, the way the 
world hurries on. That road will run through Con- 
stantinople to Bombay — in the Valley of the Tigris, 
by the ruins of Mneveh, and where once were Seleu- 
cia, Ctesiphon, Ophir, etc. All sorts of plans, how- 
ever, are now laid out to connect India by rail with 
Europe. The Eussians have their plan, as well as \ 
the English ; but the English, since the opening of \ 
the Suez Canal to commerce, ought, as a measure of jg 
power, if not of speed, to be pretty well content with k 
the waters that, in a month or less, will float a Brit- \ 
ish steamer from Southampton to Bombay. 



Aden, November 12. 

JEncore, Anglais ! Toujours, Anglais ! England 
forever, and ever, and ever ! There, is the British 
flag once more, on top of these volcanic crags of :t 
Aden ! There, is a British (white) regiment, and i 
there, is another, coffee-colored, regiment ; and there, 
is a battalion of British artillery, a fort, etc., etc. Is 
there no end of England % There, is a British steam 
engine, condensing ocean salt water for these poor, 
exiled soldiers to drink, and there, is a British steam- 
machine, making ice to cool off the wretches, whom 
the volcanic sun is roasting. A few hours' steam be- 
yond this is the little (British) Island of Perim, in \ 
the mouth of the Straits of Babelmandel, seized by 



ON THE ARABIAN AND KED SEAS. 347 

the English, and covered with British guns, to com- 
mand the entrance to, and exit from the Red Sea. 
Aden, and this whole country round about here, cer- 
tainly, as we read in Bible history, were among the 
first places the Lord made on earth — if not Aden, the 
Red Sea, and Mount Sinai — and all bear marks, in 
the dry rocks, on which the rain seldom or never 
pours, and on the sandy deserts, of the very earliest 
of the arts of world-making. Certain, it has never 
been finished, never covered with grass, never adorned 
with trees, but left, as laid out, for the sun to roast 
and bake, with all who would venture to dwell there- 
on. Nevertheless, the British have made Aden 
habitable. They have laid out excellent roads. 
They have remade the ancient tanks, where once wa- 
ter was, but not a drop now. They have tempted 
over the Somauli — bright sort of darkies, without 
woolly heads — from the African coast, to work for 
them, and they have tempted the Arabs from the in- 
terior to come in on their camels, and sell them no- 
tions of many kinds. One can now live in Aden. 
One need not necessarily die during the year ; but 
the officer of a life insurance company who should 
issue a policy longer than that on a dweller in Aden, 
ought to be dismissed for incompetency of judgment, 
to say nothing more. 

But Aden is the fag-end of creation — the jump- 
ing-off place of Ishmael, nevertheless. The popula- 
tion live (no Europeans among them, except the offi- 
cials), I should say, from my first introduction, by div- 



348 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 



-that is, by jumping into the water, and diving 
down deep for the sixpences and the coppers travel- 
lers throw there to tempt them. Swarms of youngsters 
hovered around our steamer, swam all day, and 
twenty, thirty, or forty would dive for a copper, if 
you threw it into the water, some one always getting 
it, or under the steamer, for a sixpence, coming out 
safe and sound, under twenty feet of water. But all, 
of course, do not live by diving. There are hosts of 
coalers for the steamers passing by. There are four 
steamers in the harbor to-day, all coaling. Then, 
there are strings and strings of camels, with the nose 
of one tied to the tail of another, stretching into 
town and stretching out. The curiosity trade of this 
place for strangers is ostrich feathers ; but this being 
the Jews' Sabbath, who have the monopoly of the 
business, few or none were offering, and the trade was 
hard to drive— (cost, 150 to 200 cents, or less, for 
first-rates, price demanded, $5 to $10). I rode out 
three or four miles to the cantonments of the soldiers, 
and to see the tanks, which ought to hold the water 
that won't now run down from the mountains into 
them. The tanks are a grand work ; and the can- 
tonments do credit to the care the British] take of 
their soldiers. 



The Red Sea, November 15. 

I am passing by where Mount Sinai, if not Mount 
Horeb, ought to be seen among the high-towering 



ON THE ARABIAN AND RED SEAS. 349 

mounts upon my right. I have taken out Genesis, 
and Exodus, and Leviticus, to read the whole story 
of Pharaoh and his host, and of Moses, and the stiff- 
necked Israelites, the forty years' wandering in the 
not very big wilderness, and the promised land. The 
Bedouin Arabs now have possession of all this land, 
and it is unsafe to go upon it — so unsafe, that the 
Egyptians and the British have built their light- 
houses for the Eed Sea on the opposite (African) 
coast, not daring to trust the keepers to the tender 
mercies of these Arabs, whose hands are yet against 
every man. "We have just passed Abyssinia, where, 
a few years ago, a great British host, both from Eng- 
land and from India, were mustered to punish the king 
for some disrespect to the British authorities ; and we 
have passed Nubia, and Yeddah, where the Moham- 
medans land, by the thousands, from all parts of the 
East, to make their pilgrimage to Mecca ; and we are 
now off Egypt, in a cooler air, fuller of oxygen, with 
some vitality in it, so that we can breathe with a will 
once more. 

All sorts of tales are told of the Eed Sea navigation, 
some of which are true, among them, one — that at 
times it is so hot here, passengers on board the ships 
drop down dead from heat, apoplexy, or exhaustion. 
Now and then it is so hot, that steamers running 
down the sea with the wind are obliged to change 
their course, and go backward, to catch some puffs 
of air, both to preserve the lives of their firemen and 
passengers. The hot air of the deserts — the simoon, 



350 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

it may be — actually melts people, when shut up in 
this Red Sea furnace. But, just now, as we are enter- 
ing the Gulf of Suez, the air from the north is ex- 
hilarating and charming. For the first time since I 
have been in the East, save the few weeks I was in 
or near Pekin and the Great "Wall, I begin to breathe 
an air such as I have been accustomed to in Europe 
and at home. The sun, in this dry atmosphere, is no 
longer man's terrible enemy. It is a dreadful thiug 
to feel, as one does all the while in India and China, 
that the sun, which gives life and verdure to the 
earth, is European man's greatest enemy — as fatal to 
him, without pith-protecting hat, or thick umbrella, 
as bullet or cannon-ball. 

But I have taken the wrong season to travel in 
the East. "What an American ought to do, is to leave 
San Francisco in August, see Japan a month or less, 
and then, dodging Shanghai, make his way, in Sep- 
tember or October, to Pekin ; then, returning by the 
way of Shanghai, see that place; then, coast off 
China ; then, to Hong Kong and Canton ; thence sail 
for Singapore and Calcutta, to reach there in Decem- 
ber, tarrying not over two months, and being sure that 
he is out of India in February. The voyage, then, to 
Egypt and the Holy Land will be pleasant in March, 
and one has all Europe before him for the summer. 
I nearly reversed this order of the months, because it 
is only in the summer, just now, that I can travel. I 
would not advise any other traveller to follow my 
months and my course here, in the East — for the sun 



ON THE ARABIAN AND RED SEAS. 351 

may send him to his long home, before he would 
wish to go there. 



Suez, November IS. 

Before I part with the Bed Sea, as a guide to fu- 
ture travellers, I will add, the cost of fares from South- 
ampton (Eng.) to Shanghai (China), which has been 
much reduced of late, in consequence of competition 
with the French Messagerie line, the American (San 
Francisco) line, and the Holt's line, which runs from 
Liverpool through the Suez Canal without change of 
steamer. These rates do not include wines, or the 
£3 railroad fare over the Egyptian road, from Suez to 
Alexandria (224 miles' run, at night, in 10 hours). 

Rates of Passage from Brindisi (Italy) to Southampton (Eng.') 

to— 



Aden £40 

Bombay 60 

Ceylon 60 

Calcutta. * 65 

Singapore 75 



Batavia £85 

Hong Kong 85 

Shanghai 95 

Yokohama 95 

Melbourne & Sidney 80 



The fare from Brindisi to London, by rail, is 
about 306 francs. 

The distances are, from Brindisi to — ■ 

Miles. 

Alexandria 825 

Suez 224 

Aden 1,308 

Bombay 1,664 



352 



A SEVEN MONTHS' KUN. 



Miles. 

From Bombay to Galle (Ceylon) 911 

" " Penang 2,124 

u " Singapore 2,505 

" " Hong Kong 3,942 

" " Shanghai 4,812 

" " Yokohama 6,432 



Passengers on the P. & O. line can stop as they 
please, or go, via Madras, Calcutta, and overland by 
rail, to Bombay, paying their own rail and hotel ex- 
penses. 



LETTER XXXYII. 

SUDDEN FLIGHT FROM ASIA AND AFRICA INTO 
EUROPE. 

Among the Alps.— The Isthmus of Suez.— Suez Canal.— Will it pay?— Egypt and 
Alexandria. — Confederate Officers in the Pasha's Army. — Horrid (English) Kail- 
road Cars. — Boreas and the Egyptian Sands.— Across the Mediterranean to 
Brindisi.— Things in Brindisi and Turin.— How cold it is.— Mt. Cenis and the 
Great Tunnel. — Glorious Scenery. 

Turin (Italy), November 23, 1871. 

Another Hegira. Mohammed, the inventor of 
Hegiras, didn't fly so fast as I have been flying some 
time back. I was roasting in Suez, on the Eed Sea, 
on the 18th, at night, and now I am freezing here, in 
the Alps, among snow and snow-storms. I have been 
hot so long, roasted so often, in China, Ceylon, and 
India, and the tropics, that I had forgotten there 
was need of thick clothing ; and here I am stopping 
to buy wool and woollens, and furs, and comforters, 
to keep even tolerably warm. The hills are all white 
with snow. Muffs, boas, etc., protect the women 
from the blasts, and the men, wrapped up in furs, 
chatter their teeth, and shiver and shake. What a 
sudden change from the gauzes and linens of India, 
and the Arabian and Red Seas ! 

Well — but how did you get here so quick ? What 



354 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

did you see ? I shot through Egypt in a night (my 
excuse is, that I had seen the Pyramids and the Nile 
before). A whole day was given us at Suez, to see 
the Suez Canal, and to see, if we could see, where 
Moses led the Israelites over that Red Sea, and where 
Pharaoh and his chariots and his hosts went under. 
Now that I have seen the borders of the desert, 
where for forty years the Israelites wandered, I mar- 
vel no more, as I once did, that they looked upon the 
rocks of Jerusalem and its surroundings as the 
promised land — for rocks and crags, even, are pref- 
erable to interminable sands. No wonder the Israel- 
ites were happy when they got into grass and vege- 
tables, and had something better to eat than sands 
and manna. What, however, more interests the 
Present than even the Biblical history, is the better 
turn, the moderns have made of the Ped Sea waters 
-in the great Suez Canal. There were five steamers 
coming through the day we were there. The canal 
is a perfect success for the commerce of Europe and 
Asia, and the world owes a great debt to M. Lesseps 
for forcing it through, despite all English ministerial 
opposition. It hardly pays, however, and probably 
never will pay, until it passes into English hands, 
which, sooner or later, will have a majority of the 
stock, and then, at low prices, make that stock prof- 
itable. 

Alexandria is a great city for commerce now, but 
the canal is already making a hole in its trade, and 
will soon make a greater hole. Vessels of all nations, 



SUDDEN FLIGHT INTO EUROPE. 355 

but ours, are now in its port. "We are minus almost 
everywhere, I am sorry to say. Our American Con- 
federate officers are numerous, I am told, in the 
Pasha's army, and are making good artillerists and 
soldiers of the Egyptians ; but American vessels on 
the Mediterranean, this part of it, at least, are scarce, 
very scarce. We got out of the railroad cars early 
in the morning, miserable and worn. The English 
compartment car is here, and a miserable thing it is, 
in a night ride, for India-worn travellers. Such a 
sorry, forlorn set of us, as turned up in the ferry-boat 
in the morning, from all parts of Asia and Australia 
(two steamers, pretty full, had disembarked their 
passengers at Suez, and met here) — the lame, the 
halt, the blind, some on litters, others in arms — the 
travelling world seldom sees. There are no sleeping- 
cars. We had to sit bolt upright, all night, and 
study Egyptian astrology, as we peeped through the 
windows, or lamp-ology, if we looked at the lamp 
streaming in our eyes. One set of the miserables 
departed forthwith for Southampton, direct ; another 
set, I among them, for the old Koman port of Brun- 
dusium, once the great exit of the Caesars, for Greece 
and the East. A sand wind blew from the coast, and 
littered every thing on deck with atoms of sand. I 
was glad to be out of Alexandria that day, therefore, 
as fast as steam could carry us. 

Our steamer was the Candia, a wretched concern, 
ever so old, and half a century behind the age ; but 
it was commanded by a handsome fellow, a little 



356 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

over sixty, whom the English call " Gentleman 
George." I thought he was the Lord High Admiral 
of all the East, the first squint I had of him. The 
P. & O. line of steamers have, almost everywhere, 
superb officers, first-rate sailors, as well as well-bred 
men ; but such " a swell " as Gentleman George of 
the Candia, I never met before. It is a mistake, 
though, to waste so much talent upon the sea. He 
ought to be the Lord High Chamberlain at St. James's 
or Windsor Castle. We should have been in Brin- 
disi in about seventy hours from Alexandria, but we 
brought it, in seventy-five hours— for, though Boreas 
blew dead against us, our Gentleman George counter- 
acted him by blowing on board. We lost our way at 
night, and, in the morning, got in only by tracking 
the colored water on the coast ; but I never felt any 
alarm, nay, should not have felt any, if Yulcan had 
given out in steam, or Boreas in wind — for there were 
enough of both in Gentleman George to drive any 
ship ahead. 

Brindisi, that Horace and many other classics 
wrote of, more or less, died when Rome died, but is 
reviving fast, now, as the shortest railroad terminus 
to Egypt and the East. We stopped there two or 
three hours, full long enough to see all now worth 
seeing in Brindisi, unless one is an antiquarian, or 
archaeologist, or a student of classical lore. The tel- 
egraph runs from here all over the world ; and the 
railroads all over the European part of it. The port 
is re-made, and a very good port it is, now, with 



SUDDEN FLIGHT INTO EUROPE. 357 

water enough for any ship that comes along. We 
left at noon on the 22d, and were in Turin at 10 
a. m., on the 23d — distance, about 575 miles, but that 
is the time. Bologna and several other famous places 
were passed in the night ; but nothing tempts me to 
stop now. My head is full of sights, and all I crave 
is to see no more — which only proves what I have 
written before, that three months' continuous travel 
and sight-seeing is about as much as the human mind 
can stand, on one stretch, after which all is labor, 
labor. 

In Turin there is a good deal to see, if one is not 
travel-blinded, as I am now. Its shops are pretty. 
There are many beautiful buildings. Its streets are 
all in fine order. The hotels are many, and all seem 
excellent. The King of Italy no longer lives here, 
and the Court is gone ; but Turin is worth a tourist's 
day, and the bazaars are very tempting. All I want, 
or crave, however, is to be warm, warm. I begin to 
wish I was back in Bombay or Calcutta. The snow, 
that at first looked so bewitching on the Appenines 
and the Adriatic Sea, as we flew along the railroad 
track, amid miles and miles of olive plantations, is 
no more bewitching now. An icicle, which four 
or five days ago I would have given at least a rupee 
to look at, is a hateful sight to-day. 

Don't talk to me of Italy, any part of it, as a re- 
treat to spend the winter in. I have tried all parts 
of it, in winter — half-frozen in all. I am pencilling 
now with an overcoat on, and a woollen glove on the 



358 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

unwriting hand, to keep it warm, while a costly 
wood-fire, bought by the pound, is blazing before me 
— all the heat going up chimney, though. Don't 
talk to me of Pisa, where once doctors sent consump- 
tive victims, to be sure to die ; or, of Florence, or 
Eome, or Naples. The sun is hot enough, when, at 
noonday, you are in it ; but indoors, on marble or 
wooden floors, or even on carpeted floors, you shake 
and shiver, and your teeth chatter, and you long for 
the coal fires of home. The only place in Europe to 
spend a winter in is St. Petersburg, or, possibly, 
England, where the fires are good, and the comforts 
are great ; or, to use a solecism, in Cairo, in Africa. 
There is not a winter's comfort for an American, 
or an Englishman, in winter, south of the British 
Channel. 



Mt. Cenis, or the Great Alpine 1 
Tunnel, November 24. } 

But, there is something new to see, travel-blinded 
as I am, and that is this tunnel, and the approach to 
it on the Italian side. Wonderful work ! I crossed, 
and re-crossed, Mt. Cenis and other Alps, years ago, 
on foot, with a pack on my back ; but then there was 
no pleasure like this, now, amid snow, and ice, and 
glaciers, little, if not big. Two or three locomotives 
are taking us up the ascent, and we seem to be trans- 
ferred from the plains of Italy to Alpine cottages, as 
if on wings. The sun is illuminating every moun- 



SUDDEN FLIGHT INTO EUROPE. 359 

tain crag, and the ice is reflecting, and respreading, 

J his rays. "We are all in a high state of excitement as 

i we enter the tunnel, which is eight miles long, and 

! which we are to be twenty-five minutes in passing. 

j The cars are lit by gas, and well heated with long 

i hot-water metal foot-warmers. The thermometer 

i! must be in the neighborhood of zero. 



In France. 

Wonderful work, indeed ! We are now on the 
I French side, and the sun is hid, and there is but little 
to see, save mist and snow. The gas-light of our 
car-compartment was jostled out by some jerking 
motion of the car, and we were left in total darkness 
in the heart of the Mount. Then it was that a 
Frenchman's economy and love of smoking turned 
to use for us all. Out of his carpet-bag came the 
relics of his candle, that he had paid a franc for, the 
night before, in his Italian hotel (the Frenchmen 
always carry their candle bits away; we, less pru- 
dent, leave them behind) — and out of his cigar 
match-box came his match, and with the two we 
soon replaced the lost gas-light, and re-lit the gas. 

The Indies and the East are made a day nearer 
by the opening of this Mt. Cenis tunnel, and Italy 
and France are brought close together. The British 
India mail is now going this way, instead of going 
through Germany. 

The soft, soothing tongue of Italy is heard no 
more, and we are hearing the short, sharp, curt sylla- 



360 ^ SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

bles of the French. The nuisance of passports be- 
gins here — here, in this now [Republican France — 
while Italy, a monarchy, is freed from them. I have 
passed through all Asia, and a part of Africa, and 
never heard of a passport ; but here the French of- 
ficials huddle us up in a coop and demand one. I 
happened to have one, describing me years and years 
ago, which is no more a description of me now, than 
Senex would be of Juventus ; but what matters % It 
is in English, and the French officials cannot read a 
line of it. There were venerable French visas enough 
on it to suit either the Republic or the Empire — for 
I was in France when there was a commotion once 
before. There were some Australians with us, on 
their way to England, who, like us, had not stopped 
long enough any where, since they left Melbourne, to 
have a passport made out; but we coaxed them 
through, and the French officials were yielding, and 
very polite — as grave as owls, however, in warning 
them never thus -to venture through France again 
without the inevitable passport. My American 
vouching for them, I think, had more influence with 
the officials than the half-dozen Englishmen who 
were helping them along; for the French officials 
must have felt sure an American was not conspiring 
for the re-instalment of the empire, whatever mo- 
narchical Englishman might be thinking of doing. 

You will hear from me next in Paris, where I am 
bound for a rest, and a refit, and for repairs in gen- 
eral, after this long and hasty flight. 



LETTEE XXXVIII. 

THINGS IN PAEIS AND LONDON. 

Things in Paris and in London. — Shopping- in both Cities. — Paris sad just now. — 
An American almost Home in England. — Liverpool. — Bough Booking on the 
Atlantic. — Put into Newfoundland for Coal. — St. John's. — Fishermen there. — 
Home again, Sweet Home, etc. 

Paris, December 10, 18Y1. 

Prom the great capitals of Yedo, Pekin, and the 
great cities of Canton, Calcutta, and Bombay, com- 
ing as rapidly as I have, it seems like a dream to be 
here, in what deems itself the very focus of civiliza- 
tion, and in what is (or has been), in many respects, 
the most attractive city of the world. But, of Paris 
I can scribble nothing new, unless I tell you, I am 
here repairing, refitting, just as you repair and refit a 
hulk that has been knocking around the world, and 
has lost much of its rigging. One's wardrobe melts 
away in the heats of the tropics, and I am scraping 
up the relics of my India-rubber overcoat and ga- 
loches, that have melted under the heats of Singapore 
and Penang. I find my woollens well spotted and 
inclined to be rotten. More experienced travellers 
take this voyage of mine in tin trunks, whereas I 
have used only my American coverings. Gloves look 



362 A SEVEN MONTHS' KUN. 

like leopard skins. Razors are so rusty that they re- 
mind one of shaving in the Barber of Seville. My 
companion in travel has but little left, save shreds ; 
and hence, before we can reappear in civilization, we 
must refit for it. 

Paris is the greatest place for shopping on earth. 
If any member of Congress had half the eloquence 
of a Parisian shopwoman, his fame would be made 
as the greatest orator of the age. I have read Iso- 
crates, studied Quintilian in days gone by, read 
and re-read Cicero de Oratore ; but I never have so 
realized Demosthenes's idea of eloquence — action, 
action, as in the action of these Parisian shop women. 
The dear creatures — if they only wore trousers, and 
would come over to the United States — not a man 
could stand up against them in stump-speaking. 
But, oh, how they will fib ! What marvellous tales 
they will tell ! and how they will swear to them — 
and you could not help believing them all, if you 
had not been standing such batteries of eloquent ac- 
tion, a long lifetime. The East India shopkeepers are 
eloquent, and the Chinese ha^re but little regard for 
truth; but the French shopwoman will fib with 
such grace and gentleness, that she insinuates herself 
into your pocket, despite your head, while all is done 
with such dignified suavity, that you could not con- 
tradict, if you would. If you order a garment to be 
made, you have not the least certainty that it will be 
done within a week after the day promised. You 
make all your arrangements to depart on a certain 



THINGS IN PARIS AND LONDON. 363 

day, bid adieu to your banker, and settle up accounts 
with, him, but the promised articles do not begin to 
appear. In rage you rush to the shop to scold. . . . 

" Madam, you solemnly promised me to have it ready on 
Saturday." 

" C'est vrai, monsieur, and it shall be ready on Saturday." 

"And why is it not ready ? " 

"Ah, monsieur, you did not say this Saturday; if you had, 
it should have been all ready. But you said ' Saturday week.' " 

The dodge was irresistible. I gave up in despair, 
happy to have a fresh promise that it would be done 
the Wednesday before " the Saturday week." 

I lectured another breaker of promises. There 
was no dodging the point I made with her ; and I 
ended with saying : 

"lam willing to stay in Paris all winter, madame, waiting 
for your things, if you will only pay my hotel bills." 

Madame (in reply) — "I should be too happy to do that, and 
thus have the pleasure of seeing you every day." 

"What could be done with such French politeness 
as that % I gave up, and pay my own hotel bills, of 
course. 

ANOTHER SCENE. 

Monsieur (speaking) — "And they are not ready? " (with a 
sigh, and the most plaintive look of appeal). 

Madame — "No, monsieur. Such a taille; such a figure 
(throwing up both hands in most eloquent enthusiasm). We 
are creating the most ravishing robe that ever went from our 
fingers, and we have put our best artists upon it — and do give 
us time. You would not hurry up a Eaphael, or a Guido, 
would you? And we shall do something worthy of them ! " 

The humbug was irresistible. The only way to 
be sure of any thing in Paris, in a given time, is to 



364 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

get part of it, and then threaten to go off with that 
part unpaid for, and a promise to pay for the rest 
when it is all sent, with express expenses paid, in ad- 
dition. This generally produces a result. 

ANOTHER SCENE. 

A plump and jovial American at the door — "Is the jacket 
of my wife ready ? n 

Madame (in reply) — " Ah, mon Dieu, monsieur, I cannot say. 
I will inquire. It is a most beautiful jacket." 

Passing by me in the room, into another room, 
sotto voce, she says : 

"I know it is not (with an indescribable shrug), but what fib 
shall I tell him now, le malheureux ! " 

The plump American, of course, did not get his 
wife's jacket. 

The fact is, a week or two is not wasted in Paris, 
to hear the eloquence of French shopwomen. It is 
more touching than that in the Assembly, now, at 
Versailles. 

And the art with which a French woman makes 
you buy what you don't want, and pay her own price 
for it, is wonderful. 

" It is ravishing," she exclaims. " It exactly fits your figure 
and complexion." " It is the last great chef d'ceuvre of — some- 
body." " I have sold just such a one to M. , your country- 
man, whose taste, you know, is perfect," etc., etc. 

But Paris is sad, sad enough, just now. There 
are few or no strangers here. The shops have but 
few, very few, customers. Paper money has made 
the expenses of living almost as great as in the Unit- 



THINGS IN PARIS AND LONDON. 365 

ed States; and paper money is increasing in quantity, 
and prices are rising. There is snow on the streets, 
and the cabs with difficulty work their way through. 
The little wood fires in the hotels but make one 
shiver, and force upon one the contrasts of the red- 
hot anthracite at home. (Mem. — Never spend a 
winter in Paris, unless you can have a coal fire.) 
There seems to be a new revolution impending, and 
the feeling of it in the air affrights strangers off. 
The hotels, therefore, are as empty as the shops, and 
the Parisians all look blue. 



London, December 20. 

It is refreshing, after a voyage around the world, 
to be again in an English-speaking country, and to 
be able to comprehend all you see and hear. An 
American exile from his own land for months, feels, 
when here, with all these English surroundings, as if 
he were home again. And what a wonderful city 
this is — these millions in it — on so little an island as 
Great Britain is ! No part of our "Western country, 
not even Chicago before its extinction by fire, has 
grown faster than this London has, within the twenty- 
five years past. The fields I saw here but a few 
years ago are now streets, built with palatial houses. 
No wonder, after all, as I see now, in coming around 
the world, that London is the heart of the millions of 
India, as well as the focus of Chinese commerce and 
trade. This London stretches its arms now all over 



366 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 

the earth, and its ships and its capital are in every 
port where a keel can float. 

Think of a man's being thankful that he has not 
seen the sun here for ten days, save through clouds 
of coal-smoke and fog, that makes the sun, when 
shining even, seem as if seen through a smoked glass. 
I am thus thankful, now. The burning, blazing sun 
of the East, that I have just escaped from, makes me 
feel as if I never wished to see the full-orbed sun 
again ; and hence, England in December is not to me 
the miserable climate it would be to most Americans 
just now. 

The shops of London are the representative shops 
of the whole earth, in which they differ from Paris, 
or any other great capitals. The Japanese, the Chi- 
nese, the Indians, the Ceylonese, the Borneans, the 
Moors, the Arabs, the Africans, all have representa- 
tive shops in London, and there is no place now on 
earth like London for shopping and shops. The 
French modistes eclipse the English in the arts of 
creating a beautiful woman, despite nature, too ; but 
the English tailors now are among the first in the 
world, unless there be exceptions in some of the New 
York shops. The free trade of England has made 
every thing here about as cheap as at the place of 
production, save the necessary expenses of transpor- 
tation ; and hence, the wares of the whole earth can 
be had almost as cheap as in the places of their crea- 
tion. 

Americans can learn a great many things in Lon- 



THINGS IN PARIS AND LONDON. 367 

don ; but Englishmen, it seems to me just now, can 
learn more in the United States. The English car- 
travelling is yet almost barbaric ; but what is unfor- 
tunate, the English have modelled the car-travelling 
of the greater part of Europe. This is not felt so 
much on the little isle, where distances are short, as 
on the Continent, where distances are long, and where 
our sleeping-cars would be real blessings to the trav- 
eller. The imprisonment of an English car is a 
species of incarceration, that fevers and enrages an 
American ; and no soft cushions or luxuries seem to 
atone for it. The underground car-travelling in Lon- 
don, and the cab locomotion there, are far superior 
to any thing we have in the United States. There 
are no hotels in London to be compared with ours in 
ISTew York and elsewhere in the States ; and prices 
are practically higher, with fewer luxuries, though the 
expenses of hotel keeping in London must be far less 
than in New York. 



Liverpool, December 23. 

Last evening, as I came down from London, ex- 
hausted by the kind hospitalities of numerous friends 
there, I dropped to sleep, and waking up, wondered 
whether I was in, or had passed, Liverpool, or was 
shot on to Manchester. There was no way of find- 
ing out whether I had overslept or not. The con- 
ductor could not be approached. There was no 
neighbor in my compartment to inquire of. There 



368 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN 

was no one accessible to answer any question respect- 
ing any place, or any thing. The isolation, or incar- 
ceration, rather,, was like solitary confinement — at 
least for that part of one's life. When the locomotive 
halted to coal or water, I popped my head out of the 
car, screamed to a neighbor in the car in the rear, 
and learnt that Liverpool had not been reached, and 
that the rail I was on, could not take me to Manches- 
ter. Think of what profitable travelling that must 
be for a stranger in such solitary confinement as this ! 
But we did go fast ! — full forty miles an hour, and 
with ease and safety, too. 

Cheistmas and New Year's on the rough winter 
North Atlantic, with furious gales of wind ! Never 
go westward in winter, if you can help it, for the 
furies of Greenland will be poured out upon you. 
"We have had eleven days of continuous gales, gain- 
ing, one day, only forty miles upon the storm ! 



St. John's (Newfoundland), January 7, 1872. 

The Algeria (our steamer), a sturdy, but not 
rapid, Cunarder, has put in here for coal. Boreas 
and Vulcan have had a terrible tuzzle for two weeks, 
or more, on board the steamer, and Yulcan, exhaust- 
ed, knocks under, and makes for Newfoundland, to 
recruit in fuel and steam. 

One does not feel exactly comfortable in approach- 
ing a rock -bound coast, in the thickest sort of a fog, 



THINGS IN PARIS AND LONDON. 369 

j where the entrance to the harbor, as that of St. 
I John's, is hardly wider than the length of the steam- 
■ er. No lighthouse or beacon could be seen — noth- 
| ing, indeed, save fog, fog, fog ; but by the help of 
our guns, responded to by guns at the mouth of the 
!j harbor, we felt our way safely in — wadfelt much bet- 
I ter when we found coal enough for us in store from 
| the Nova Scotia mines. 

The Saint, John, has his name affixed to many 
! places over the world, but to none other, I believe, 
in so cold and inhospitable a climate as this. It is a 
very religious place, too, judging by the throngs go- 
ing to church, and returning therefrom, in the furi- 
ous snow-storm to-day. The Catholic Church here, 
as I judge by the numbers attending, is, numerically, 
the most powerful. Immense crowds, morning, noon, 
and afternoon, thronged into the capacious cathedral, 
all responding with feeling and fervor to the services 
of the priest of that church. The most of the great 
crowd — nearly all, well dressed — must have been 
fishermen, as were the Apostles of old, for the odor 
of fish rose above the odor of incense. The seal-oil 
trade is great here, and much of it once went to the 
United States, where it is now excluded by a high 
tariff. ' The seals are now hunted by steamers, several 
of which are now in the harbor, to start as the 
spring opens, in order to chase down the seals on the 
! floating cakes of ice. Agriculture amounts to but 
j little, very little, in Newfoundland. The ocean is the 

! great placer to be worked for wealth. A wild story is 

17 



370 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN. 



now travelling here of a Labradorian mail-carrier, 
who started from St. John's this winter, in his snow- 
shoes, and whom the wolves devoured, on his way to 
the interior, leaving nothing of him and his charge 
but his gun and a portion of the uneaten mail, while 
several slain wolves were about, shot by the mail-car- 
rier before he was devoured. 



New York, January 12, 1872. 

Once more at home ! " Sweet home ! " I feel 
like re-singing the song of Catullus, when apostro- 
phizing his Peninsular home of Sirmio. 

[From Catullus, Car. 28.] 

O 'quid solutis est beatius curis ? 
Cum mens onus reponit ac peregrino 
Labore fessi venimus larem ad nostrum 
Desideratoque acquiescimus lecto. 

My own, my cbosen home, oh, what more blest 
Than that sweet pause of troubles when the mind 

Flings off its burden, and when, long oppressed 
By cares abroad and foreign toil, we find 

Our native home' again, and rest our head 

Once more upon our long lost, long wished- for bed. 



HOME FROM A FOREIGN SHORE. 

ARRIVAL OF HON. JAMES BROOKS IN THE ALGERIA— A LONG VOYAGE, AND A 
HEARTY WELCOME HOME. 

{From the New York World, January 13, 1872.] 

A numerous party of the private and professional 
friends of the Hon. James Brooks yesterday pro- 
ceeded down the bay to accord a welcome to that 
gentleman on his arrival home after a long and peril- 
ous journey. It having been ascertained that Mr. 
Brooks would arrive by the Cunard steamer Algeria, 
the Henry Smith, Captain Baulsier, with the band 
from Governor's Island on board, had on the previ- 
ous day gone in search of this long over-due vessel, but, 
as she failed to put in an appearance before sun-down, 
it had been arranged that the trip should be repeated 
early on the morrow. Accordingly, Colonel Ingalls 
having again placed the Henry Smith at the disposal 
of the reception committee, the welcoming party left 
Whitehall yesterday morning, at the rather unreason- 
able hour of 7 o'clock. The steamer was gaily deco- 
rated with flags, and on the pilot-house was displayed 
a white banner, bearing the words : " The friends of 
the Hon. James Brooks. Welcome ! " The military 
band was again in attendance, and discoursed pleasant 
music on the trip down. Arriving at the quarantine 
pier at about 9 o'clock, it was found that a telegram 



I 



372 HOME FROM A FOREIGN SHORE. 

had just been received from Sandy Hook, stating that 
the Algeria had that moment crossed the bar. The 
reception party, therefore, quickly pinned on their 
badges of white silk, each of which bore the word 
" welcome," and proceeded slowly down the bay. On 
reaching Fort Tompkins the long-expected steamer 
was discovered in the distance, with her fore and 
main top-mast housed. Steam was therefore shut off, 
and tha Henry Smith lay to, only waiting to run 
alongside the Algeria directly that vessel would be 
abreast the fort. Meanwhile, the final preparations 
for the reception were completed, it being arranged 
that ex-Mayor Gunther should make a short welcom- 
ing address, to which Mr. Brooks would necessarily 
reply. At about 10 o'clock, therefore, the Henry 
Smith, with band playing " Home, Sweet Home," 
gave three tremendous shrieks with her whistle, dip- 
ping, at the same time, the flag at her bow out of re- 
spect to the English steamer. This was followed by 
a hawser being cast from the Algeria when the small- 
er steamer drew alongside. Then came the congratu- 
lations of 3ir. Brooks's friends, who were, however, 
unable to grasp him by the hand, but contented them- 
selves with handkerchief-waving, cheering, and enter- 
tainments of a similar character. This welcome met 
with a hearty response from both the cabin and steer- 
age passengers on the Algeria, the latter, who seemed 
to be pretty well worn out with their long voyage, 
being particularly demonstrative in their joy. Then, 
as the two steamers proceeded alongside each other, 
all manner of inquiries were exchanged between the 
wclcomers and the welcomed. 

"When off quarantine, the anchor was dropped, and 
Drs. Carnochan and Mosher immediately appeared 



HOME FROM A FOREIGN SHORE. 373 

in the Fletcher and commenced to pass the passengers. 
On a second hawser being thrown to the Henry Smith, 
the two vessels were drawn near each other, when 
Mr. Gavit sprang off the paddle-box where he had 
been standing, cleared the bulwarks of the Algeria 
with a bound, and in less than a second had thrown 
his arms around Mr. Brooks's neck and was hugging 
and kissing him. So suddenly had the attack been 
made that the recipient of this outburst of affection 
had had no time to place himself in an attitude of de- 
fence, byf, was compelled to receive and bear all with 
a smiling countenance. As soon as he could conveni- 
ently do so, Mr. Brooks quickly and in a dignified 
manner unlocked himself from Mr. Gavit's passionate 
embrace, and forthwith saluted his son, who had fol- 
lowed closely on the heels of the demonstrative com- 
mitteeman. Then the other members of the commit- 
tee poured over the side of the vessel, and one general 
round of embracing and saluting went on for some 
minutes. Miss Brooks, who had accompanied her 
father on his grand tour, was also the recipient of 
many welcomes. Both the voyagers appeared in ex- 
cellent health, and seemed to have benefited by their 
protracted journey. Mr. Brooks having changed his 
seal-skin travelling cap for a more official-looking silk 
hat, was fully prepared for the inevitable address, 
which was forthwith spoken by Mr. Gunther on the 
deck of the Algeria. After extending a hearty wel- 
come to Mr. Brooks the ex-Mayor proceeded to state 
that he hailed him as a representative man, and as 
such was always proud to welcome him. Many days 
had occurred since Mr. Brooks's departure for the Old 
World, and they were therefore doubly pleased to 
have Mr. Brooks again in their midst. In behalf of 



374: HOME FKOM A FOREIGN SHORE. 

the city, his constituents, and the country generally, 
he gave him a hearty welcome. Mr. Brooks replied 
that he felt extremely proud for the reception which 
they had accorded him ; in fact, it had been quite an 
ovation, and totally unexpected by him. He was 
proud to be a representative man, and would speedily 
set about using his utmost endeavors to set right any' 
principles that might have suffered by his absence. 
As his career had been in the past, so it would be in 
the future. Since May last, when he left this coun- 
try, he had travelled more than thirty thousand miles, 
and felt very glad to be again in the midst of his 
friends, and he could assure them that to him there 
was no place like home. 

A great waving of handkerchiefs and much cheer- 
ing followed at the conclusion of these remarks, and 
the band appropriately began to play " Home Again." 
Mr. Brooks was then taken on board the Henry 
Smith, his daughter accompanying him, and immedi- 
ately conducted to the saloon, where a repast had 
been prepared. Miss Brooks, being the only lady on 
board, retired to the after-cabin, where she passed the 
time in her brother's company. At the lunch the 
customary toasts were given and responded to, the 
only noticeable feature in the proceedings being a 
tendency among the guests to pledge Mr. Brooks's 
health in champagne about every thirty seconds. 
Having landed the young lady at the Battery, the 
Henry Smith proceeded to the Cunard Dock in Jer- 
sey City, where Mr. Brooks obtained his luggage. 
Four carriages were in waiting, and into them the 
private friends of Mr. Brooks entered, the whole 
party proceeding tc his residence in Fifth Avenue — 
not before, however, the old editor had paid a visit to 



HOME FROM A FOREIGN SHORE. 375 

the office of his journal on Park Row. At the private 
residence the guests were received by Mr. and Mrs. 
Brooks, who, after exhibiting the various trophies 
that the travellers had brought and sent from abroad, 
conducted them to the dining-room, where an elegant 
luncheon was provided. After partaking of refresh- 
ment it suddenly appeared to the guests that the host 
and hostess had been sufficiently worried for one day, 
so, beating a hasty retreat, the whole party left and 
came down town. 



THE END. 



THE DESCENT OF MAN, 



SELECTION IN RELATION TO SEX. 

BY 

CHAS. DARWIN, M. A., F. R. S. 

Two Vols., 12mo. 

-roriTia: iLXuTJST^A-Tioisrs- 

Price, $4.00 



In these volumes Mr. Darwin has brought forward all the facts and 
arguments which science has to offer in favor of the doctrine that man 
has arisen by gradual development from the lowest point of animal life. 
He had originally intended this work as a posthumous publication, but 
the extensive acceptance of the views unfolded in his book on the " Origin 
of Species " induced him to believe that the public were ripe for the most 
advanced deductions from his theory of "Natural Selection." Aside from 
the logical purpose which Mr. Darwin had in view, his work is an original 
and fascinating contribution to the most interesting portion of natural 

history. — 

From the London Spectator. 

" For our part, we find Dr. Darwin's vindication of the origin of man a far more 
wonderful vindication of Theism than Paley's ' Natural Theology,' though we do 
not know, so reticent is his style, whether or not he conceives it himself." 
From the Citizen and Bound Table. 

" Even the charge of atheism, which was so violently urged against Mr. Dar- 
win, is now rarely heard, and theologians, whose orthodoxy is unquestioned, have 
ventured to admit that it is possible to believe both in Christianity and the Dar- 
winian theory at the same time." 

From the Charleston Courier. 

"No one can rise from an ordinarily attentive consideration of Mr. Darwin's 
treatise, without being impressed, not only with the extent and depth of the 
knowledge which he has attained upon the subject under treatment, and his long, 
unwearied labor in collecting facts, but also with his possession of qualities 
equally rare— the true scientific temper, the transparent candor, and the truth- 
seeking soberness, with which he expresses to you his conclusions, and the pro- 
cesses by which he reaches them. 

" Whether you like his discourse or not — though you may refuse to acquiesce 
in his conclusions — still you are compelled to bear your witness, that this man 
fcas not been laboring to find facts to support a preconceived theory, but thafrthe 
'Jieory is the irrepressible outgrowth of his accumulated facts." 
From the Evening Bulletin. 

*• This theory is now indorsed by many eminent scientists, who at first com- 
bated it, including Sir Charles Lyell, probably the most learned of living geolo- 
gists, and even by a class of Christian divines like Dr. McCosh, who thrak that 
certain theories of cosmogony, like the nebular hypothesis and the law of evolu- 
tion, may be accepted without doing violence to faith." 

Sent//w, by mail, to any address in the TJ. S., on receipt of the price. 

D. APPLETON & CO., Publishers. 



COOPER'S 



LEATHER-STOCKING NOVELS. 



A. NEW -AJSTD 

SPLENDIDLY-ILLUSTRATED POPULAR EDITION 

OF 

FENIMORE COOPER'S 

WOKLD-FAMOUS 

LEATHER-STOCKING ROMANCES. 



D. Appleton & Co. announce that they have commenced the publica- 
tion of J. Fenimore Cooper's Novels, in a form designed for general 
popular circulation. The series begins with the famous " Leather-Stock- 
ing Tales," five in number, and will be published in the following order, 
at intervals of about a month : 

I. The Last of the Mohicans. 
II. The Deerslayer. IV. The Pioneers. 

III. The Pathfinder. V. The Prairie. 

This edition of the " Leather-Stocking Tales " will be printed in hand- 
some octavo volumes, from new stereotype plates, each volume superbly 
and fully illustrated with entirely new designs by the distinguished artist, 
F. 0. C. Darley, and bound in an attractive paper cover. Price, *75 cents 
per volume. 

Heretofore there has been no edition of the acknowledged head of 
American romancists suitable for general popular circulation, and hence 
the new issue of these famous novels will be welcomed by the generation 
of readers that have sprung up since Cooper departed from us. As time 
progresses, the character, genius, and value of the Cooper Romances be- 
come more widely recognized ; he is now accepted as the great classic of 
our American literature, and his books as the prose epics of our early 
history. 

D. APPLETON & CO., Publishers, New York. 



63 1 * 



"The enduring monuments of Fenimore Cooper are his works. While 
the love of country continues to prevail, his memory will exist in the 
hearts of the people. so truly patriotic and american throughout, they 
should find A place in every American's library."— Daniel Webster. 



. 






























